Beyond Truths and Ideals
by Writer under training
Summary: Two heroes: Ash and N. Two legendary dragons: Reshiram, Zekrom, Two selfish fathers: Giovanni, Ghetsis. Two dangerous organizations: Team Rocket, Team Plasma. The struggle between the boy who could understand the speech of Pokemon and wants to vanquish the relationship between humans and Pokemon, and the boy who claims to become the world's best Pokemon trainer.
1. Introduction and Preface

**UPDATED: 6-JUN-13**

**Beyond Truths and Ideals**

**Word of Introduction a.k.a Author's Preface**

Beyond Truths and Ideals is my second most major Project after Road to be a Pokémon Master. Road to be a Pokémon Master is intended to show the main side of Ash's character, the Pokémon trainer. Beyond Truths and Ideals explores the other side, the hero who is prophesized to be 'The Chosen One'. The story exploits another major Pokémon character: Natural Harmonia.

The story will follow the concept dropped in the original anime, the conflict between Team Rocket and Team Plasma. Despite difference in ideologies both Team Rocket and Team Plasma have the same goal, to obtain one of the two legendary dragons. While the story will mainly be a conflict between N and Ash, the story mostly revolves around these two teams more than ever. Team Plasma will appear in their Original BW form, with the motto 'liberation of Pokemon'.

At a later stage the concept of Aura will be thoroughly used. Yes, Ash can use Aura.

There will be a lot of action. One cliffhanger will lead to the other. Just when you think the main character finally gets a break, you will find him in a sea of trouble.

That is all I'll say for now. Anything more will ruin the fun, right?

**World Setting:**

The story is set in the standard anime world. However a sense of realism is followed, which means comical things like Team Rocket blasting off will not happen.

The lack of guns in the anime is mostly because the show is intended to be watched by ten year olds. This quirk however is established as a solid concept in this story. It has been assumed that gun powder has not been discovered in the Pokémon world as the humans in this world clearly don't have the necessity for manmade weapons with Pokémon by their side. However, this doesn't mean that the world is technologically backward.

As much as I hate guns, I accidentally incorporated in chapter 2, and at the end of chapter 1. This will be corrected soon, but the reader is requested to bear the inconsistency for a while. The scene will be re-written soon enough to avoid the gun.

The world is indeed a bit more advanced in nanotechnology and electronics goods are much more enhanced than ones in the real world. For example the Pokémon Dexter used by Ash Ketchum has a sensor that can identify a Pokémon by its shape. You don't necessarily have to put the sensor before an actual Pokémon for it to identify the shape. Pictures, silhouettes and even statues of Pokémon can be identified by the Dexter and gives the trainers the information about the said Pokémon accordingly.

**Time:**

Although the exact dates have not been used in the story, the story is set in the year 2013 for the sake of ease. It has been assumed that Ash takes one year to travel a single region. Having travelled five major regions, Ash is now fifteen. His exact birthday is on May 22, as per Takeshi Shudo's Novelization of the anime.

**Pairing:**

A poll has been made in the third week of May so that people could vote on the girl Ash would be paired with. The responses left me extremely confused. I have expected one of Misty or May to dominate making it just a matter of choice between two Shippings: Advanced or Poke.

However as of June 6th, 2013: With just 9 more days for the voting to end, a total of 72 votes have been received.

The results are extremely surprising. The votes have been almost perfectly distributed among four major girls: Dawn, Hilda (surprising considering that she doesn't belong to anime canon), Misty and May.

Dawn currently leads the Poll with 17 votes; however she doesn't dominate the poll. Hilda is right behind this Sinnoh Coordinator with 16 votes. And that's not it friends, standing right next to Hilda is Misty with 14 number of votes. May is slightly behind with 13 votes. Annabel has 10 votes, while she's quite behind the other four it's still a good number for a two episode character. The most disappointing result goes to NegaiShipping fans as their favorite girl has only five votes.

In the initial stages Dawn utterly dominated the poll with the rest of the girls behind. I actually felt happy because there was a definite choice among them here. However May took the lead in one week. But when I posted Chapter 17 of my story Road to be a Pokémon Master, the votes have bumped up and Misty, Hilda jumped up high into the sky while May dropped down to fourth.

In order to make a definite decision, I have decided to open a second round on 15th June. Annabel and Iris will be dropped from the second round of voting.

A new poll will be made with the following options.

1) Dawn as the main girl and Hilda paired up with N

2) May as the main girl and Hilda paired up with N

3) Misty as the main girl and Hilda paired up with N

4) Hilda paired up with Ash.

The purpose of this second round is pretty simple. I want to know if people want Hilda or people want Hilda paired up with Ash. It gives me a perfect understanding of the reader's opinion.

The new poll will mostly be posted on 15th.

**Lastly, a small warning: **The story assumes that Giovanni is Ash's father. This is a warning, if you are extremely against it, then I suppose you can't complain later because I am putting up this disclaimer.

**Stages and Arcs**

The story will be split into stages and arcs.

**STAGE 1 Reshiram**

**Arc 1**: Team Rocket and Team Plasma

**Chapter One: **Viridian Hijack

**Chapter Two: **The Missing Six

**Chapter Three: **The Search for Pikachu (Coming Soon)

**Arc 2**: ?

**Arc 3**: ?

**STAGE 2 Zekrom**

**Arc 1**: ?

**Arc 2**: ?

**Arc 3**: ?

**STAGE 3 Kyurem**

**Arc 1**: ?

**Arc 2**: ?

**Arc 3**: ?

There will be two possible time skips in this story, one between Stage 1 and 2, and the other Stage 2 and 3.

The names of the arcs will be updated as I plan and write..

**More updates to this chapter will be done as the story progresses, so keep checking the update date on the top.**

**Continuity with Canon: **The story begins after the Unova League, that is after Ash's disgraceful loss to Cameron. Instead of travelling to the White Ruins as in the canon, he will instead travel home to Kanto by flight. Iris and Cilan will return to their respective hometowns.

**It will also be assumed that Ash will send his other Unova Pokemon to Oak's lab(as done in the canon) directly after the league**


	2. Viridian Hijack

**Another story? Yes. After struggling to write a chapter to my other story Road to be a Pokemon Master, I realized the infamous Writer's Block hit me again. IDK what others do when that happens. I happen to write new stories.**

**This is a complete overhaul of my fic Legend of the Dark Prince that will be deleted pretty soon. There are many things I have done with L.O.D.P, especially by making Ash somewhat of an anti-hero in it. Even I felt slightly troubled after that, so I decided to write badass Ash this time. Not sure you'd see that in chapter one, but hey keep reading!**

**This story is set right after the Unova League (after Ash losing to Cameron). Which means the N-saga (it sucked imo) and the new filler season didn't happen. **

**Beyond Truths and Ideals**

Reshiram: Zekrom. Two legendary creatures that were supposed to be the strongest of all dragons. The Unova Region—no, the world itself was said to have been created and destroyed multiple times.

Many legends revolved around these two Pokémon. There were many folk tales where each dragon sided with a hero of their choice. The resulting conflicts between these two heroes of opposing factions was said to have destroyed Unova a thousand years ago, and was said to be reconstructed by the people who realized their folly in fighting each other.

Thousand years have passed since the Great War, the legendary Pokémon fell into deep sleep after that and have been waiting ever since…for the new heroes.

Little did these titans know that they were in fact two teenage boys.

* * *

**1. Viridian Hijack**

**December 1****st****, 11:35 A.M**

It's been six days since my loss at the Unova League.

My name's Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town, and a Pokémon Master in the making. After getting my first Pokémon on my tenth birthday I've travelled one region after the other and challenged the respective leagues. Unova was my fifth region and my sixth league participation.

We managed it to top eight, not a bad performance…but it was still a letdown when compared to my previous performances. But of course, I'm sure we'll do a lot better the next time. Both me and my Pokémon will make sure the cup's gonna be in our hands the next time.

"Hey boy," I was snapped out from my line of thought by the elderly man who sat beside me. "They just announced the landing."

"Sorry, I spaced out," I scratched my hair in embarrassment.

The old man returned a smile at that. "It's good to be young. So full of dreams and hope for the future."

After a year of journey throughout Unova, I departed to Kanto right after the finals of the Unova League. I had to part with either of my travelling companions Cilan, Iris before taking the flight to Viridian. It was kinda sad to part ways with someone whom you spent one year with, but it wasn't exactly my first time doing that.

"Pika," the rodent that rested in my hands woke from its slumber when the Air Unova finally touched the Kanto ground, the Viridian airport.

"We're back buddy," I said, excited. It's been a year since I last saw Mom, and I bet Professor Oak might love studying my Unova Pokémon.

As I kept thinking about the possible reunions in Pallet, I didn't realize that the plane was awfully silent and had already parked itself to a stop.

"Hey why aren't they opening the exit yet," someone in the front row asked impatiently, to which the guy beside him shrugged. It could have been some technical problem.

"Ah," then the man sitting in the row before me exclaimed. "Look outside."

The scene that stood outside only baffled all of us.

* * *

"We're bringing this news from the Viridian City, Kanto. An unknown number of Team Rocket operatives have taken over a section of the Viridian Airport. The Rockets have hijacked the Air Unova that had just landed on Runway number 9. The airport security and the anti-terrorist force have already arrived at the scene but it seems the Rockets have made their way into the runway and threatened to bomb the plane with a high-grade explosive unless someone attended to their demands. The Mayor of Viridian Mr. Greenwalker announced that due action will be taken on the situation and believes that the lack of a proper security system in the Viridian airport was the reason for this travesty…"

"Did you see that?" A middle-aged man in a red business suit laughed as he watched the news running in the television. "The mayor is putting the blame on security."

"As incompetent as his hold on politics," the blond woman who stood beside him scoffed. "So Giovanni," she said, resting on his desk. "Why exactly are we making a ruckus for a load of cargo?"

If anyone else were in the room they would have noticed a twitch in the Rocket Boss's eyebrow. Although the tinge of freedom he gave Domino was well-deserved of the covert agent, he didn't like how she acted on it.

"Do I look like a fool to make a fuss over some cargo?" the man gave her a wry look.

The woman Domino, also known as the Black Tulip frowned at this. Of course it was something important. But why was Giovanni so secretive about it, the woman wondered.

Whatever it was, it must be something major, why else would he put Ariana on it?

* * *

Panic spread everywhere in the Air Unova. Instead of the usual airport squad, there were a bunch of shady men dressed in black uniforms outside on the runway. Almost every one of them had a Pokéball or two attached to their belts.

"Team Rocket?" Ash exclaimed and regretted doing so as the panicking passengers only grew increasingly panicked at the mention of the dreaded terrorist organization.

"Oh lord they are going to kill us like in that Lavender massacre," a hysterical woman screamed. From what his mother told Lavender massacre happened fifteen years ago when Team Rocket was under the control of some woman named Madame Boss. Around fifteen people were killed in a series of bomb blasts.

"I can't die now," a young man in his twenties began to sob. "I just bought a special ring from Unova to propose Tina."

Ash himself was slightly shocked. He knew Team Rocket were a dangerous organization that specialized in stealing rare and powerful Pokémon, but why would they hijack a plane full of civilians? Most of the people around him don't even have Pokémon on them.

The raven-haired trainer saw worry flash over almost everyone's faces. He had to do something to calm them down. The boy stood up from his seat, "Everyone, calm down," he said, gathering the attention of all the passengers around him. "I'm a Pokémon trainer. We can fight these people and get out of here."

"Pika, Pika!" The rodent said in agreement to its trainer. Ash added an assuring smile to his proclamation.

The said passengers however didn't seem to be convinced by the fifteen year old. In fact they looked at him as if he was some kind of a lunatic.

"I knew something like this would happen," a female voice spoke from behind.

A red-haired woman who seems to be in her thirties was standing in the aisle between the row of seats, a smug look on her face. She was wearing a white dress that extended down her knees. The most noticeable things of course were the symbol 'R' etched in red, the belt containing Pokéball and not to mention the slimy Pokémon Muk that was standing before her.

Ash's expression changed from surprised to that of dread when he realized the woman was a Team Rocket member. "I knew some random twerp like you would be here to disturb us." She snapped her fingers, and three more men emerged from the passenger seats. "Good thing I was in the plane."

As the raven-haired was still recovering from the sudden surprise two more grunts joined from behind. They were coming in from the direction the cockpit was. Ash realized this wasn't just a random Team Rocket attack he faced on a daily basis.

"Now all of you," the woman addressed the trembling passengers. "I want all of you to hand over your cellphones and Pokéball to my men. If anyone tries to—"

There was no way he could let something like this happen.

"Thunderbolt!" Ash exclaimed all of a sudden.

The electric rodent jumped into action immediately. Its cheeks sparked with electricity as it let out the powerful electric move. The jolt of electricity was sent at the slimy Pokémon that rested on the blue carpet.

"Muuuk!" The Pokémon groaned in pain as electricity surged through its body.

The Rocket woman was surprised by the sudden attack at first. But the look slowly turned into a frown. "Clever little brat," the red-haired woman hissed. "Muk, Sludge Bomb!"

The sludge Pokémon cried in response and opened its mouth to shoot brown pellets of dirt. The attack which seemed as fast as a bullet struck the rodent clean and square.

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed as the rodent was sent flying into him. The impact in fact sent the trainer back, causing him to trip over one of the seats and fall over a woman wearing a knee-length skirt. The woman startled by this pushed the trainer away, causing the raven-haired to tumble over the seat behind and fall down.

The red-haired woman laughed at this. "That was a good stunt," she said, a haughty look on her face. "Harassing twerps like you is perhaps the best part of my job."

Ash rubbed his head, and checked if the rodent was okay. The Pokémon seemed fine and was ready to go for another round of bout. Ash smirked, "Maybe harassing children is what you can do the best."

The woman's smile disappeared at this. "You have got some nerves to speak like that."

The raven-haired adjusted his hat as he stood up. "Pikachu," he pointed at the Muk. "Use Volt Tackle!"

The rodent lunged at its target muttering its 'Pika' as it did so. Soon the Pokémon was covered by a surge of electricity till an extent that only the outlines of its body were visible.

"Gunk Shot!" The woman retaliated in response.

The mass of slime took a deep breath that inflated its body, and then like a catapult it suddenly let out the purple mass of waste at the attacking rodent.

"Pikachu, watch out!" Ash exclaimed. Normally his buddy would have been able to dodge the attack but in a crooked space surrounded by people, something like that was next to impossible. Ash hadn't foreseen the possibility, and cursed himself for it.

The purple mass of garbage struck the charging electric type, creating a minor explosion in the process. The grey smoke erupted out of it engulfed the entire plane. Despite covering his nose with his hands, the pungent smoke managed to enter into the raven-haired boy's lungs causing him to drop into a fit of coughs. It was perhaps the same for everyone around as he heard many coughs echo at the same time.

As the smoke cleared, he spotted his beloved partner struggling to stand straight. A purple stream of venom coursed through his body as the Pokémon cringed in pain. "Are you alright, buddy?" The trainer asked, worried. His Pokémon was poisoned. _'This is bad. I'll switch to Pignite.'_

"Pikachu retreat," he commanded the rodent to fall back and proceeded to go for his next Pokéball.

"This isn't a Pokémon League numbskull," the woman scoffed. "Muk, use Sludge Bomb!"

Before the raven-haired could even comprehend what was going on the slimy shot landed by his feet, exploding on the blue carpet. The trainer froze in surprise, and glared at the woman in disgust.

"That was just a warning," the woman said, folding her arms. "The next time it will land on your face. Now handover you balls."

"Pika," Pikachu growled in pain. The poison was slowly spreading through its body.

_ 'This is so wrong.'_ Ash gritted his teeth. He can't just let those people take away his Pokémon. But he was outnumbered six to one. Not to mention, if he tried anything that Muk would sludge bomb him.

Realizing he was in no position to fight back, the trainer slumped his shoulders in defeat. The woman smirked at this. She nodded the grunt behind Ash to take his Pokéball.

The raven-haired plucked the five Pokéball out of his belt and handed them to the rough-looking man dressed in black.

"The Pikachu," the woman pointed at the rodent, lying on the floor.

"Pikachu doesn't like to get into a Pokéball," he said.

"Then would it like to rot to death?" The woman asked. "I'm not Nurse Joy, boy. It'll either go into its Pokéball or you'll find its rotten rodent flesh inside the garbage can behind Viridian Pokémon Center."

Ash clenched his fists. He was helpless. More than Team Rocket he was mad at himself because he was so helpless. How could something like this happen to him? Pikachu, Oshawott, Unfezant, Pignite, Scraggy, Snivy. All six of them were his prized Pokémon. They were his friends. How could he simply abandon them?

"I won't give you much time boy," the woman tapped her finger against her hand impatiently. "Get the Pokémon into a Pokéball and let's get over it."

Ash looked at the rodent that was in no position to comprehend the situation around him. The poison had completely spread inside its body. A few more minutes and….

"I'm sorry, buddy." He took the sixth Pokéball on his belt. "I'm a terrible trainer." The Pokéball sucked the Pokémon right back in.

He looked at the red-haired woman with a contemptuous look, "You're going to pay for this, Team Rocket."

The expression on the boy's face piqued the woman's interest. "We'll use this boy for the media announcement. Tie him up."

* * *

"….And as we see, a couple of members from Team Rocket have confiscated a camera from one our people, It is possible that the Rockets might use it to send a live broadcast…."

A worried auburn-haired woman was watching the news nervously. In fact she was so nervous she didn't notice that she was biting her nails to a point that they were almost non-existent.

I've contacted Professor Juniper," an elderly man in a white coat came in to the living room. He had a worried look on his face, "She said he was in that flight."

"Oh my god," Delia Ketchum covered her mouth with her hand. "Will he be okay, professor?"

The old man frowned. "Team Rocket might be a criminal organization but they usually don't do something like this. Something must be really wrong," he said falling in deep thought. But when he realized he was only worrying the mother, he quickly corrected himself. "I think he'll be alright. Even Team Rocket won't do something drastic." Kill a person maybe…but bomb a whole plane? Unlikely.

"The president of the Pokémon League, and the chairman of the Secret Service, the G-Men Mr. Charles Goodsho is here to speak with us from their headquarters in Indigo League…."

An elderly man with a beard that was almost as long as he appeared on the screen. If one didn't know otherwise, one might mistake him to a dwarf from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Despite his silly look, the man was in fact an influential person in the world of Pokémon.

"This is a cowardly act by Team Rocket. We've managed to ruin them in their last seven operations and have almost captured their boss. Our secret service managed to cut these people's tails and have recently captured a cargo load that was being sent secretly to an unknown location. This is merely an act of retaliation. These people are nothing but a bunch of little kids trying to take over the world."

"You know," Professor Oak looked more worried than ever. The old man's words were clearly provoking. "Goodsho is a good chap but he needs to watch what he talks."

Delia was in no position to respond to that. Her brain was completely stuffed with worry for her son. She was more worried because knowing Ash; he'd do something reckless and try to fight back Team Rocket.

She joined her hands in a prayer. _'Please be safe, sweetie.' _

"..We have interrupted Mr. Goodsho's speech for something more important. Our news broadcast has just received live footage from our camera that was stolen by Team Rocket…"

The image on the screen changed. A red-haired woman in a white dress appeared before the screen. In the backdrop was the 'Air Unova', the flight that was said to have been taken under control by the Team Rockets.

"Greetings, people of Kanto…." The woman had a haughty look, "Or rather the world." It was common knowledge that the PBC channel was an international news broadcaster. "My name is Ariana, one of the admins of Team Rocket. As you know," she pointed to the air bus behind her. "The Air Unova and its two hundred passengers are under our possession. We dislike showing our faces to the public," the expression on the woman's face however seemed the opposite. "But it has become a necessity. One of our cargo planes have been captured by a combined operation carried out by Interpol and the G-Men. Our humble request to the government is to return our plane within the next six hours. Or else…" the woman pointed her finger at something off-screen. The camera turned to a grunt holding a fifteen year old boy down to his knees; his hands were tied back in addition to the grunt's tight hold on the boy. The boy of course was—

"Ash!" Delia exclaimed.

"Oh lord," even the old Professor was stumped.

"We give you six hours at most," the camera shifted back to Ariana. "If our demands are not met by then. We'll start with the boy…" she paused on purpose. "And then every ten minutes, you'll have an extra dead body on your conscience."

Delia was stupefied. Her brain went numb. The world began to swirl around her. Her hope…her only son…"Ash," the woman muttered before crashing onto the ground.

"Delia," Professor Oak jumped to catch the woman. "Delia," he tried to shake the woman back to consciousness in vain. "Tracey!" He exclaimed to his assistant.

"Of course," the woman on the television continued to speak. "It goes without saying that if anyone makes a wrong move…you'll have another Lavender in Viridian. Except this time, you'll have two hundred deaths to mourn for."

_'Another Lavender…?'_ The old Professor realized she was speaking about the massacre that took place fifteen years ago.

* * *

"Show off…" Domino rolled her eyes. "Look at all that make up she had put on."

The only other person in the room, Giovanni however didn't respond to her comment. Instead his Persian yawned in reply. The said man was silently brushing the Persian's fur as he stared at the television blankly.

"Anything that works for our mission's success, I guess," he muttered more to himself than a reply to what she spoke. "How's our shipment to Unova running?"

"Archer is on it," Domino replied. "He doesn't want to mess up after losing the cargo plane to G-Men."

"We should have taken the ship route in the first place," Giovanni sighed. "Taking a cargo load of our equipment through air was a foolish move." He cursed his grunts' incompetence for the millionth time in his ten year term as the Team Rocket's boss. Nothing was more difficult than trying to conquer the world with a bunch of idiots.

"What exactly is in that plane anyway?" Domino asked, to which the man raised an eyebrow in reply. For some reason Giovanni was skipping around the answer, she realized. In fact no one in the team knows about what was inside except for Giovanni himself. Granted his grunts were incompetent, but should he hide whatever was inside? Domino kept her gaze on the Rocket boss, pressurizing him to answer.

Giovanni contemplated for a second, and then spoke, "Our entire database."

* * *

Ariana was tapping her white boots against the ground impatiently. Six hours of waiting and doing nothing was one of the most horrible things to do in her list right below marriage and raising children.

Five more hours to go, she realized checking her watch. It had been an hour since her fabulous debut in the media.

She shifted her attention to the boy who now lay unconscious. He tried breaking out of her grunt's hold; the latter simply knocked him to sleep. To be honest, Ariana in fact liked the boy's attitude. Even in the desperate situation he was in, he wasn't moping in sorrow but was rather fighting back with whatever he could. If only the grunts around her were like that. As much as she liked being an executive of Team Rocket, she knew the general defeatist attitude amongst the grunts. Most of them were cowards who joined Team Rocket only for the sake of petty amounts of cash. If one were to offer more, more than half the team would be ready to betray Team Rocket.

"Any reports from the outside?" Ariana asked the only female grunt in the group, whom she had by her side.

"The HQ told that there hasn't been any movement from the government side," the grunt said. "Goodsho made a speech before our live broadcast. He didn't contact the media after that."

"Cowards," Ariana grumbled. "They'd rather put the lives of these people on the balance instead of making a bold decision."

Although, Ariana wondered, what exactly was inside that stupid box that Giovanni was making them go to extreme measures for getting it back? Knowing him, the woman thought, she would never know.

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me before, boss?" Domino asked, more than just startled.

"I didn't see the need to," he replied curtly. Honestly, the woman was forgetting her place. Giovanni never liked to share his plans with his underlings. He liked to put them in the dark. It would constantly remind them their place.

"Then why did you tell me now," the blond was slightly offended.

"Because I want you to tell the same to Ariana," he said. "It's important that she knows what is in it."

The woman winced at that. Yes, he had to constantly rub in the fact they were all just pawns on his grand chessboard without any exception. If he was any softer, he would be easily overthrown by the next day.

"I will inform sir," she said, there was a bit of sourness in her voice.

"And…" Giovanni said as the woman began to leave. "Tell Ariana not to kill the boy…" he said after a pause. "Don't forget that."

* * *

"Not kill the boy?" Ariana was slightly stunned. "Not killing the boy after making a big deal in the news will ruin our plan."

"These are the boss's orders," the blond woman on the videophone said sternly. "You can wish to not follow it. But he was very specific about it."

"Are you sure these are Giovanni's orders?" The red-haired woman raised an eyebrow. "Or is this kid another of your boy crushes?"

"Stop using your disgusting head," Domino wrinkled her nose. "Do as the boss says." The videophone turned blank after that.

As much as she loved playing with the younger woman, she was startled by the shocking revelations. One, the so called cargo ship contained the entire database of Team Rocket. Why on earth would Giovanni ship something like that? It was a mystery to her. The second was, she had to do the mission without killing the boy. How the hell was that even possible? The Kanto government was known for its indecisiveness. They wouldn't obviously handover Team Rocket's precious cargo unless they had a couple of deaths to pressurize on their heads. If she were to hesitate to kill the first one itself….

"Ma'am," the grunt who was with her spoke. "What will we do?"

"No clue," she shrugged. "We risked our lives for this stupid mission without even knowing that our entire database is at stake and now he tells us not to kill a boy." She was clearly dissatisfied with the boss's orders. More often than not, she respected Giovanni's leadership. He was an amazing strategist and if it weren't for the incompetent grunt force their organization would have been much stronger. But it was at times like these that she absolutely detested him.

* * *

"This is really messed up," the green-haired coordinator, Drew said as the large group of coordinators watched the news.

Accompanying him was the brunette, May, who along with the blunette Dawn was watching the news with equal worry. The coordinators were all collected in the whirl islands in Johto for Wallace's infamous Wallace Cup that was held annually in various regions.

"The government of Kanto has just made an announcement that they were working on Team Rocket's demands and will give an answer in due time. The Mayor of Viridian, Mr. Greenwalker assured that he'd do whatever was in his power to bring all two hundred and seven passengers back intact…."

"Typical government statements," Zoey sighed, crossing her arms. She turned to the two girls who have hooked themselves to the televisions ever since the news came out. "Don't worry, girls. I think they will do something to save him."

* * *

The red-haired champion of Kanto banged his fists against the desk. "We're not giving that cargo back." If Team Rocket stooped far enough to threaten the lives of two hundred people then it was definitely very important to them, the Kanto Champion thought.

"Two hundred lives are at stake Lance," Goodsho argued. "We don't have any choice."

"I know," the man frowned. "I know well what is at stake here, Mr. Goodsho. I don't want Ash's death on my conscience either. I'll make sure to save him from that place."

"That's a big issue," a blond woman was on the screen in the videoconference. "If you try anything recklessly to save Ash, they'll kill the remaining people."

There were more faces on the screen than just the blond champion of Sinnoh.

"Let it go Lance," a silver-haired man said. "We can't win everything. You have done a commendable job in these seven years. Nobody managed to clip Team Rocket's wings like you did."

Lance gritted his teeth. "Albert, Reynolds and four of G-Men's bravest agents died in the process of retrieving that cargo. I can't amount their deaths to nothing."

"He's correct," a fourth person spoke. "Landon and his friends risked his life for that cargo. We have no right to ask him to back off." The Champion of Unova spoke.

_'My name is Lance' _he was tempted to correct, but didn't as it was just a vain attempt. "Don't worry guys. I'll find a way to deal this without giving in to that incompetent bunch of fools."

* * *

**Four hours after Ariana's announcement…**

"Young men these days," the old woman sighed as she studied the group of twenty that collected before her in the darkness of Viridian City Gym. "I hope all of you have a backbone," the woman said tapping her stick against the floor. "You will need one if you want to rescue those two hundred people struck inside the plane."

"As a responsible member of Elite Four in Kanto," the woman announced. "I will lead the operation myself. Our mission as G-Men is to prevent the Rockets from killing the two hundred people because we're not going to be giving them their little box. We will be splitting into three squads." She turned to the first group, comprising of seven men, "The first squad will surround the perimeter and watch the situation. You will be armed with sniping Pokémon. Your main job is to disable the Rocket members while the rest two squads will work on their own missions." She turned to the second sect of people having eight men. "The second squad will focus on finding the bombs and disable them. I hope every one of you brought a Magneton with you." She turned to the last group with seven people. "The last squad will focus on rescuing the people back to safety."

The woman Agatha studied the expression on each and every face. "Both Lance and I will focus on saving the kid, Ash Ketchum. You can fail on this mission," the woman said. "But if you do, I'll make sure to make you visit the graves of each and every of these people and channel their ghosts into your uppity heads."

"Are we clear?" She asked, in her usual snappy tone.

"Sir, yes, sir!"

* * *

**Five hours after Ariana's announcement….**

"No response from the government," the black-haired secretary, Matori reported. "Lord Giovanni."

Matori had a placid face devoid of any expressions. It was one of the main reasons why Giovanni hired her as a secretary. Giovanni preferred to have people who live in touch with reality. He had cases of secretary who had secret romantic interests towards him. He didn't care if they had such odd crushes on him, but it was painful when they show it on the outside. Matori was exceptional in that regard. He didn't know what transpired in her mind, and he didn't care either as long as she was perfectly bland on the outside. It was a perfect relationship between them.

The Rocket boss sighed silently. "It's those G-Men again," he said.

"Proton, Petrel and Archer are in position," she said. "Additionally. Domino seems to be working on her own from the other end."

"Good," he smirked. "Lance will not even understand what hit him." He would definitely not expect all of Team Rocket's elite force to be gathered at one place. Normally Giovanni would spread them in different regions for many operations. But right now, Team Rocket had abandoned any external operations. There was a good reason for that of course.

They were moving out of Kanto.

* * *

"Based on Magneton's Supersonic we have determined seventeen possible locations for the bomb," a man jabbing on his sophisticated laptop reported. They were using Magneton's Super Sonic to scan the entire area Team Rocket had taken over.

"Let me see," Lance stooped to check the system. "How do you usually tell which is the bomb."

"The Supersonic waves that reflect and come back to us determine the material density and mass to us. Based on the data, we narrow it down to whatever we are looking for," the tech explained.

Lance raised his eyebrows, "So there are seventeen bombs inside?"

"No," the man shook his head. "This thing isn't accurate. It usually counts a range of densities into one type. We have narrowed our search to seventeen."

"Seventeen huh," Lance grumbled. Right now they only had twenty people in command. Being a secret organization recruiting people into the G-Men was seldom done. The shortage became worse when seventeen of the sixty four agents died in the course of four years.

"I was wondering," Lance asked. "Is it possible to count the number of Pokémon the enemy has?"

"I could adjust the density parameters and scan for Pokémon," the man said, as he began to jab the device and changed a few numbers.

"I want you to scan the entire area surrounding the airport," Lance said. "I want to know if Team Rocket has any backup."

"Yes sir," the man hummed as he began the scan again. The screen turned blank at first, and then blue waves started to appear from many directions. "The waves are being sent," the tech explained the champion. A blue dot appeared somewhere in the middle. "These dots indicate the Pokéball in that area," he said as a few more dots appeared. Lance expected a few more dots considering how there were twenty of his men outside the airport in disguise and around the same number of Rocket grunts inside the airport. But he definitely didn't expect the screen to be flood by hundreds of dots.

"What's going on?" Lance asked, hoping it was a bug in the system.

"I must have put the wrong parameters," the tech said, typing something. He paused when he saw the numbers on the screen. "The numbers are correct, Lance." He said looking at the champion with dread.

"Why are so many Pokéball collected near the entrance of the airport?" Lance asked, befuddled. He took his phone and dialed the name 'Agatha'.

The phone rang twice and the woman spoke. "Lance this is no time to flirt with me," she said, although her voice somewhat less-jovial.

_'You're too old for me,'_ he didn't say aloud,

"Agatha," Lance ignored the woman's remarks. "What's going on at the entrance?"

"Protestors," Agatha said. "They're protesting against the government to release Team Rocket's plane to get the people back to safety."

Protestors? Why would a bunch of protestors carry Pokéball with them?

"They're not protestors," Lance hissed. "It's Team Rocket. They're going full scale on us."

"Are you sure?" The elite four member asked, the seriousness in her voice growing. "We can't make a move unless we are."

"I'm ninety percent sure," Lance replied. "They have Pokéball on them. You don't see your ordinary folk with Pokéball."

"We're royally screwed then," Agatha winced as she said so. "If only the airport security wasn't so incompetent."

"No time to rant Granny," Lance said. "Let's get into action, now."

"Don't you ever call me that—"

The dragon trainer cut her off before she could complete. He took out his Pokéball. "Time to kick some Rocket butt, Dragonite."

* * *

**Five hours forty-five minutes since Ariana's announcement…**

"Fifteen more minutes," the redhead said checking her watch. "You die after that."

Ash gritted his teeth. This wasn't how things supposed to end. He was supposed to become the world's strongest Pokémon trainer. Moreover he didn't like the idea that he was going to be killed by a Team Rocket member, especially for reasons he didn't know.

"Don't you want to cry, boy?" The woman asked, her tone somewhat mellow. "You're about to meet your end in the middle of nowhere among people you detest."

He wanted to spat a remark back at her. But the grunt standing right behind him was going to knock him out again. It happened three times already.

Ash closed his eyes in frustration. If they want to kill him, then let them. Do they have to torture him mentally too? How can a person be so uncaring about the life of someone else? Doesn't she realize his life was as valuable as hers and that getting killed wasn't something to laugh at? It was so disgusting. It was even more disgusting to die at the hands of such a person. It seemed only like divine punishment for him.

_"Do you hate dying like this?"_

Ash opened his eyes. What was that voice?

"What is it boy?" Ariana asked, noticing the surprise in his eyes.

"Y…Yes," he said. It could be his hallucination, but it was still a voice addressed to him, right? Then it only made sense that he answered it.

_"Then you don't have to die."_

"D…Don't have to die?" He was confused. It wasn't like his life was in his hands. He was going to be killed.

"He's going insane?" Ariana wondered for a second, a genuine worry on her face. Could something like that possible for a detestable woman like her?

"Ma'am!" A female grunt came running towards them in panic.

"What's wrong, Linda?" The redhead asked, a fierce frown returning back to her face.

The woman was obviously panicking one could say just by looking at her. "It's the G-Men. They've been engaged in a fight with our backup teams."

"Backup teams?" She was surprised. How the hell did they spot the backup teams in the first place? She turned around to Ash, "Alright, the more weakness we show, the more we lose." She said to Ash in what seemed like a half-assed attempt at an apologetic tone. "I wasn't planning to kill you, actually. But the situation has gotten worse. Turn the camera on, Linda!" She snapped her fingers.

"But Ma'am," the grunt protested weakly.

"Now!" Ariana said in a commanding tone.

No! The voice told he didn't have to die. Could it mean that he had to fight for his life? Maybe it was his own consciousness telling him to fight. The flash light blinded on Ash's face as the grunt Linda turned the camera on his face.

This is it!

With all the force his body could muster, the raven-haired tackled the grunt behind him with his elbow. The grunt who was blinded by the same light that was cast on him was caught off-guard by the sudden hit on his stomach.

"He's running!" Ariana exclaimed.

Ash ran away from his two captors as far as possible. Except he didn't have a clue as for which way he should run to save his life.

He turned around and saw the two women running after him. "This is why I hate little twerps!" Ariana yelled as she enlarged the Pokéball in her hands and tossed it into the air. "Muk, Body Slam!"

Terrified, the raven-haired tried to run faster than his legs could carry. In his haste, he tripped against his own leg and landed face first on the hard ground of the runway road.

The Pokéball popped in the air, and the Sludge Pokémon materialized in the sky, much to Ash's horror.

"Muuuk!" The Pokémon growled as it threw its entire weight onto the fifteen year old lying on the ground.

"Aargh!" Ash screamed in pain as the heavy mass landed on his back with an impact that seemed like it was going to snap his spinal cord in two.

_'So much for trusting that stupid voice.' _ He cursed himself, clenching his fist in pain. The heavy weight on his back seemed to slowly slide away as multiple footsteps approached him from many directions.

He was yanked upright by two pairs of rough hands that caught him by his shoulders and was tossed into the view of the camera that was flashed at him.

"Lance and the G-Men," Ariana said, posing before the camera. "This is your punishment for not answering to our demands!" She turned around, pulling out a gun out of nowhere—er, a holster.

"This is where my story ends," Ash muttered to himself. "I'm sorry Mom. I'm sorry friends. But this is where my journey will come to a stop."

* * *

"What is that woman doing?!" Giovanni yelled, pushing the Persian that rested on his lap away. "Matori!"

The said woman came running into the Rocket Boss's office. The louder his voice was, the faster Matori would be in his room.

"Lord Gio…"

He snarled before the woman could finish her sentence. "What the hell is Ariana doing? I ordered her not to kill that boy!"

"I'll contact her immediately," the woman immediately took the phone and quickly jabbed in a few numbers. Matori waited as the phone blinked for a long time and….she put the phone back. "I can't reach her for some reason."

"What?" Giovanni looked at her as if she was a mad woman. "You talked to her an hour ago."

"I'm sorry," the woman however looked as emotionless as ever. "It seems the G-Men are jamming the signal for some reason."

* * *

"We have jammed the signals to make sure the members inside lose communication," the Mayor of Viridian City, Mr. Greenwalker spoke. "Good luck with the fight, Lance."

It took him two hours to do that? Lance wanted to roll his eyes but refrained from doing so.

The dragon trainer was in the air, flying atop his dragon. The situation outside the airport was chaotic. Powerful Pokémon moves were flying everywhere, destroying each other and the airport itself. The police joined forces with the G-Men but their Growlithe were overwhelmed in no time by the poisonous Muk, Vileplume, Weezing and Arbok. Although he and his men had high-leveled Pokémon, the sheer number of the Rockets around made the fight even in a horrific way.

"Lance and the G-Men," a woman's voice echoed through the announcement speakers. "This is your punishment for not answering to our demands!"

The loud voice ceased any combat that was going on. Lance realized what her words meant.

No, it couldn't be….

"Ash," he muttered the name. He was a brave young boy who had a good potential to become a powerful trainer in the future. More than that, he was a genuinely good soul, something that was hard to be found in the modern world.

"H…He shouldn't die," the dragon trainer muttered. "Dragonite," he yelled at the Pokémon he was riding. "Quick use Extreme Speed, we need to save Ash!"

"Not a chance," someone else yelled. Standing atop a street light was a man dressed in a black uniform. He wore a hat, which he held onto in a stylish manner.

"Not now Proton," Lance yelled. "Dragonite, go!"

The Dragon Pokémon let out a roar as it prepared to charge in. But Lance didn't realize he made a big mistake in his hurry.

"Weavile," Proton smirked as the Dragonite shot past him. "Blizzard!

That was when Lance noticed the Weavile standing atop the structure, waiting for Dragonite to pass through.

A powerful icy wind blew past the dragon Pokémon, causing the dragon to halt to a stop. The attack struck the dragon's wings instantly freezing it, covering the scales with ice. The dragon having its wing crippled couldn't maintain its weight anymore and crashed into the building with the same speed.

Lance couldn't understand anything other than the fact that he was rammed into airport building, and he along with his Pokémon crashed onto the seats arranged for waiting passengers.

"No…" he tried getting up, but realized it was a foolish move. A pain he never experienced coursed through him as if every part of his body was pierced with a lance. Blood was trickling down his head, and his vision started to get blurry. But even so he saw the scene that was being displayed on the T.V.

A woman with a gun in her hand was pulling the trigger at the fifteen year old boy who despite the death staring on his face put a brave face.

_'I failed you…Ash.'_

* * *

"You'll die now," Ariana said aiming the gun at the boy. "For the sake of Team Rocket."

That was the worst thing Ash wanted to hear with death standing at his front door. But after what he went through for the past six hours, his heart was more than bold. Yes, he felt fear, but he realized it was not the side of him he wanted to show on the verge of his death. His death might be pathetic, but he wasn't.

He closed his eyes, waiting for the sound of the barrel. He waited and waited…..and then came the sound.

But it wasn't the sound of a bullet being shot.

It was an arcane cry, from a beastly creature. It was so loud that it had in fact numbed his ear for a second. Was it a death god? Ash didn't know what was going on, but he wasn't keen on opening the eyes yet.

"What the hell's that?" The woman who was about to shoot him yelled.

"I'm not sure," the female grunt replied. "But it's a Pokémon."

Curious, the raven-haired opened his eyes and found something in the sky diving towards the ground at an unimaginable speed. His eyes widened in surprise when he recognized the creature coming towards him.

At once the hope that was beaten out of him surged back as he yelled the name of the Pokémon coming for him.

**What is the identity of this Pokemon that has conveniently appeared right before Ariana shot Ash. Is it a legendary Pokemon? Or is it something ****familiar? **

**BTW, I do know Electroball replaced Volttackle but I hate it so I put Volttackle right back in.**


	3. The Missing Six

**6-JUN-13: If you people have come for the new chapter, no I have added a new chapter One, that is all!**

**Ah people, you made guesses and they were all bad ones. But it means that I was successful in misleading you. Before I go on and reveal what is the Pokémon that came from the sky, let me throw in a few hints I mentioned in chapter one.**

**1) I have mostly concentrated on action last chapter, but I did show a scene where Dawn and May watch the scene from Johto. The scene's purpose was simple: To indirectly tell the readers that a certain Pokémon could watch the news from Johto like it did some time back. To add some reality, I gave a buffer time of six hours for Ash's survival. Six hours…Johto….travel.**

**2) 90% of you must have guessed it by now, but to the ten who didn't guess it yet: I said Ash spotted a familiar Pokémon that gave a monstrous cry. Now Zekrom isn't a familiar Pokémon. Yes, he saw it briefly when he reached Unova, but one could hardly call that familiar. Mewtwo is not a beast; it doesn't give beastly cries, so it's not Mewtwo either.**

**Alright, even if you haven't guessed it by now, it's not a problem. 'Cos I am revealing it right away.**

**2. The Missing Six**

"What the hell's that?" Ariana asked, as she spotted the silhouette in the sky.

"I'm not sure," the female grunt, Linda replied. "But it's a Pokémon."

Ariana wanted to roll her eyes at the obvious answer, but the situation didn't befit the expression. The Pokémon approaching them was clearly a danger.

"Charizard!" The boy, Ash exclaimed. There was a rush of happiness in his face. Any lack of hope he suffered from till then vanquished into joy.

A Charizard? The redhead watched as the silhouette finally came into her vision. It was an orange-colored dragon-like Pokémon. The Pokémon was slightly bigger than what she had seen of the same species. It looked angry judging from the Pokémon's narrowed eyes.

"So he has a backup Pokémon?" Ariana muttered bitterly. "Let's make a quick work of it," she snapped her fingers. "Muk, Gunk Shot."

The slimy Pokémon let out a growl and opened its mouth, preparing a purple mass of garbage. Noticing the poison type's move, the red pseudo-dragon opened its vicious jaws and let out a roar that tore through her eardrums.

Muk flinched at the Pokémon's roar, but retaliated by spitting out the garbage at the flying target. At the same time, the Charizard let out a huge flame from its mouth that caught up with the garbage, engulfing it within no time. The resultant collision between the attacks created an explosion.

The impact of the explosion was good enough to blow the people around it. Ariana had to cover her face with her hands as the smoke blew past her face.

The woman then felt something heavy land before her. The smoke cleared, only to reveal a six foot beast standing in front of her, sending a warning glare.

Ariana's hands involuntarily went for the gun she was holding in her right hand. She aimed the pistol at the fire type and prepared to pull the trigger.

"Charizard swat the gun away!" Ash exclaimed, guessing her move almost immediately.

The enormous Pokémon spun around, shifting its heavy torso back. An enormous tail that was five times the size of a baseball bat struck her hand. The force was so unbelievably strong that her entire body was pushed away and the gun in her hand slipped her grip.

Ariana felt the hard floor hit her. Her hand was sore with pain, as if it was hit on by a fast moving train, and her shoulder seemed to have been pulled apart from her body. The gun which was swatted away by the Pokémon's tail now lay at a distance, crumbled into pieces.

"Madam!" Linda exclaimed running for her.

"Forget about me," Ariana grunted in frustration. "Get the Charizard."

At the mention of its name, Charizard spread its wings and let out another roar which literally blew away the Rocket grunts standing before it.

As she struggled to stand back up, Ariana realized they were in some big trouble.

* * *

Ash was jubilant. Charizard had once more saved his life. He was out of Pokémon and in no position to fight the Rockets and their Pokémon. But with Charizard on his side, the ball was back to his court.

"Thank you," he said to the Pokémon standing before him protectively. "Old Buddy."

Charizard turned around and gave its trainer a thumbs-up. But its attention shifted to the surroundings as the rest of the Rocket Grunts who have watched the scene collected around them. It turned around again and growled something to its trainer.

"I understand, let's fly," Ash smiled. They were in the middle of a large group of Rockets. Fighting them all away while keeping Ash safe would be next to impossible, even to Charizard. The Pokémon stooped slightly and tucked its wings as the trainer managed to sit atop the fire-type. Once the Pokémon checked that the trainer had firmly placed himself on top of it, it spread its wings and with one powerful flap that almost felt like a windstorm the Pokémon charged high into the air.

"They're getting away," Ariana yelled. "Send your Pokémon out!"

The red-haired woman took a Pokéball herself, and tossed into the air. "Honchkrow, go and show that twerp a thing or two."

The boss Pokémon, Honchkrow materialized out, giving a haughty cry as it immediately took off into the air, following its target, the twerp and the Charizard. Following Ariana the rest of the grunts tossed their Pokéball into the air. About ten Golbat materialized simultaneously. The bats flapped their wings, following the boss Honchkrow in pursuit of the pseudo-dragon in the air.

Ash held his hat from being blown away by the wind as he looked down. He spotted the dark type coming towards them at a good speed. Charizard was fast, but with Ash aboard, the Dark type had no difficulty in catching up to them. Following the dark-type, the annoying noise of the Golbat's flaps followed as the Pokémon began to surround Honchkrow in a formation.

"This is bad," Ash muttered. Blindly running away could put them in a dangerous position. "Charizard, flamethrower!"

The fire-type turned around and let out a flame at the upcoming Boss Pokémon. The Pokémon ducked away from the flames, dodging the attack with ease thanks to the distance.

"Honchkrow," Ariana yelled from below. "Haze."

The Pokémon spread its yellow beak open, letting out the grey smoke. Charizard immediately flapped its wings to blow the smoke away, but meanwhile the Golbat that were far below the two managed to catch up with the pseudo-dragon.

"Golbat," a grunt commanded from below. "Supersonic."

The Golbat that surrounded Charizard let out a screeching noise causing the Charizard and its trainer to cringe and cover their ears.

"Charizard," Ash yelled at the top of his voice. "Flamethrower."

The fire-type that closed its eyes along with its ears, blindly let out the flames from its mouth at everything around it, successfully catching a seemingly unprepared Golbat in the process. The rest of the Golbat were thrown into disarray in the process of dodging the flames.

"Sludge Bomb!" The grunts commanded the Golbat.

Some of the Golbat that were to the fire-type's back and away from the flamethrower's range let out the projectile attacks onto the Pokémon.

"Charizard, watch out!" Ash yelled, but it was too late by then. The attacks exploded on the Pokémon's back, a few of them catching the trainer in the process. The impact of the attack was powerful enough for the trainer to lose his hold over the Pokémon and fall down.

"Charizard!" Ash yelled as he fell from a height equivalent to the fifth floor of a building.

The fire-type noticing the falling master let out a growl in panic and dashed towards the ground with a speed that would make a jet plane fall in shame.

* * *

Ariana was quite happy, she brought the kid and the Charizard to where she wanted. The Charizard was absolutely defenseless now that it was putting all of its power into rescuing its trainer. Strong it maybe, but it was still one Pokémon.

"Honchkrow," the woman yelled the dark Pokémon that was already in pursuit of the pseudo-dragon. "Dark Pulse on Charizard."

Realizing the admin's plans, the grunts joined her. "Golbat, Air Cutter!"

The bat-like Pokémon followed the leader Honchkrow. The said boss Pokémon prepared the attack that's said to be fueled by foul intentions. The dark waves were sent straight at the Charizard that lunged towards the ground. Simultaneously, the Golbat's wings shone with a bright energy, the bats then flapped their wings sending out ripples of wind energy at the target.

* * *

Charizard was rushing for its trainer. The more the time passed, the faster Ash was reaching the ground. He wouldn't survive a fall from such height, the Pokémon knew that much. Letting out a growl it put more force into falling towards the ground. It finally managed to catch up with the trainer. It was only few inches away from grabbing Ash when—

An excruciating amount of pain hit Charizard on the back as it felt the hot pulse of an attack that struck it on its spine. It was as if it was being pierced by a hot rod from behind. The pain caused the Pokémon to flinch, losing control over its flight. Soon a rain of Air Cutters followed, hitting the Pokémon once more on its back, cutting its skin like blades.

With the prickling pain created by the Air Cutter and the excruciating pain created by Dark Pulse, the Pokémon completely lost control of its flight and continued to crash down right above its trainer.

* * *

Ash was facing Charizard as he was falling to his back. The Pokémon was being subjected to extreme pain by the multiple attacks to its back. The unfair move the opponents made caused him to grit his teeth, but he knew better than to expect a fair fight from Team Rocket.

But they can't lose like this. He has to fight for his life. "Don't give up, Charizard!"

At the same time he heard the Rocket Admin command from behind. "Muk, Sludge Bomb!"

Whether it was Ash's words or the fact that his life was in danger, the Pokémon which almost passed away from the attacks, opened its eyes and let out a fierce roar. It spread its wings and propelled itself towards the falling trainer. Ash didn't know what was going on, but he was sure he would be safe with Charizard protecting him.

* * *

The ground was only a few feet away. Any second Ash would crash and the resulting fall would kill him or at least the Sludge Bomb from the Muk would. There was no time to waste. Knowing full well that going at full speed at this juncture meant he would have to crash into the ground; the Pokémon put every ounce of its strength into its flight and caught the trainer well before he could touch the ground. It could have used its wings to balance the fall and fly back, but that's when Muk used Sludge Bomb to maim the target, which was Ash not Charizard. The Pokémon instead of spreading its wings to fly away used them to shield the trainer.

Before long the trainer and the Pokémon crashed with a ground shaking impact. The impact was mostly cushioned for Ash thanks to the Pokémon's belly, but Charizard received most of the damage from the crash. The fall was strong enough to create a crater that put either of them into the ground.

Once assuring that the trainer was safe from damage, the Pokémon slowly rose back to its feet and pushed itself up from the crater.

* * *

Ash opened his eyes to face the sky. The world seemed like it was dancing around him, and he felt himself stumble against the wall of the crater created by Charizard's immense expanse. It was funny how he received almost none of the damage and yet found himself in a worse shape than Charizard who was now growling at the surrounding enemies. It reminded him of how fragile a human's life was.

Noticing he has no time to mope, he pulled himself out of the crater and noticed at least ten Golbat surrounding them in the sky, led by a Honchkrow. On the ground, there were about ten Rocket grunts surrounding him, led by Ariana and her Muk.

"Humph," Ariana scoffed. "You won't get away from Team Rocket, boy. Your death is destined to be in my hands."

Ash wasn't happy with the situation but, "It's a pity you need these many people to catch a fifteen year old boy," he mocked. "I really pity you, Team Rocket."

The woman narrowed her eyes at this. "You just earned yourself a torture before your death. I was planning to kill you painlessly with a single bullet."

"I'm not afraid of your stupid threats anymore," he said defiantly. Yes, he was in a corner. But for some reason the more he felt cornered the more his heart told him to be rebellious. He didn't care if he had to die because of that, he wouldn't die like a timid Mareep in their hands. If anything he wanted to die like a brave Luxray.

Ariana was deeply insulted by this. It wasn't every day that a fifteen year old spat at her face. "I'll finish your stupid dragon first," she snapped her fingers. "Muk, Body Slam!"

"Charizard," Ash commanded. "Seismic Toss."

The slimy Pokémon jumped at the pseudo-dragon, but the Pokémon firmly caught the mass of sludge that threw itself at him. Charizard was deeply bruised, and was filled with injuries, but the Pokémon still had an immense amount of strength left inside its body. It spun around and tossed the Muk like a heap of thrash into the air. The Pokémon ended up crashing into a Golbat, which had to suffer the Pokémon's deadly weight when the duo ended up crashing to the ground a good distance away.

"Blow them away, Charizard!"

The Pokémon let out a deep cry and flapped its wings continuously generating a huge amount of wind in the process. The wind sent the men, and even the Golbat flying away. If anything was strong enough of stand in the wind, it was the Honchkrow.

Ash turned to the fire type and patted his shoulder. "I know you want to rescue me, but it's better if you defeat the other Pokémon first." He turned to the blown away Rockets, "I'll only be in your way if we move together. Finish those Pokémon first. I'll promise I'll survive those idiots while you battle."

Charizard nodded its agreement. The damage it received in the process of saving Ash was too much. It was much better if it kept the Pokémon away from him.

"Now go get them," he said pointing at the sky. The Pokémon grunted and flapped its wings to push itself high into the air, followed by the lecherous Golbat and Honchkrow.

* * *

Lance wiped the blood of his face. His eyesight was slightly blurry and he was fighting from falling down unconscious. There were two men standing before him, one with a Weavile and the other with a Houndoom.

Lance was facing Archer, the most influential Team Rocket member and Proton, the most dangerous Team Rocket member. If he was fighting these two then one thing was very clear: The story of Team Rocket's Kanto reign was drawing to its climax.

"Dragonite," Lance muttered. "This will be one of our last battles against these fools. We'll end this stupidity once for all."

The Dragonite nodded in agreement. One of its wings was frozen, but to a dragon master's Pokémon that was no trifle. The damage received from crashing into the building was immense too, but not enough to take down the Pokémon.

"Flamethrower on Weavile," Lance commanded.

The dragon performed the fire attack at the Ice type, who stood still smirking. In a move that seemingly surprised Lance, the Houndoom jumped into the path of the flamethrower. The fire attack disappeared when it struck the dark-type and a fiery aura surrounded Houndoom instead.

"Quite a bad move for a champion," Archer smiled, a calm expression on his face, "You have just activated Houndoom's Flash Fire."

The hound opened its mouth as it prepared its own flamethrower. The Pokémon's eyes flashes with a fiery energy as the flame grew in size when it came out of the Pokémon's mouth.

"An obvious trick is obvious," Lance muttered. "Dragonite jump into the fire."

The dragon type jumped into the immense flames as if it were nothing to it. Soon, the Pokémon found itself engulfed deep inside the flames.

"Are you in the mood of losing today?" Proton asked, a smirk on his face. "Then we'll be glad to kick your Champion-ass."

"Not quite Proton," Archer said putting a finger on his chin a thoughtful expression. "He's got us, actually."

Proton's expression changed at his partner's remark. At the same time the flames that engulfed the dragon disappeared, and the Pokémon that was inside the said flames was still standing intact as if nothing happened.

"Thanks to your move my Dragonite can freely move again," Lance smirked. "Now is that a move you expect from a champion?"

It was then did Proton notice that the Dragonite's left wing which was frozen till then was now free of the layer of ice. He gritted his teeth at this, "It doesn't matter if I freeze it again. Weavile," he yelled. "Blizzard!"

Archer wasn't fond of the fact that his partner fell to an obvious taunt from Lance, but such was Proton's style and he had to adapt to him even if he didn't like it. "Houndoom," he commanded, "Use Dark Pulse."

"Dragonite," Lance immediately moved into action. "Use Dragon Rush!"

The Dragon type swiftly moved into the air, and turned around to face the attacking Weavile and Houndoom. Using the ceiling as a support, the Pokémon lunged at the two Pokémon, shrouding itself in a blue aura as it did so.

Both Weavile and Houndoom launched their respective attacks simultaneously at the blue aura that was set to strike the said Pokémon with a speed resembling a rocket.

The ice type and dark type moves struck the blue aura head on, but the attacks were merely deflected away like the bullets of a small pistol against a heavy tanker. The attack then proceeded to strike the target with the same force one would expect from a torpedo.

The Dragonite jumped away from the dust that rose from the collision and landed beside its trainer, like a dutiful soldier who had just completed his mission. The Weavile and Houndoom were found unconscious, sprawled on the ground like lifeless dolls.

Lance smirked at the Rocket Admins. Proton still looked shocked at the overwhelming difference between Lance and himself. They faced each other many a times during Lance's raids on Rocket Operations. Proton was the one he faced the most and every time situation demanded that their battle had to be discontinued. This was perhaps the first time Lance had the opportunity to thoroughly crush him.

Archer on the hand didn't look much surprised. He took his Pokémon back in silently. "Consider it you victory, Lance. But I am sure our purpose was to…"

"Slow me down," Lance finished. "Yeah, I guess I am too late." He felt guilty. He personally commanded the operation and assured to save Ash in the process. But he failed in that aspect. If Ariana was as ruthless as he thought, then she'd have….finished it by now.

"But I still have 206 lives to save," Lance said. His original plan was to perform a covert operation and disable the bomb, but the plan failed when he realized the Rockets had backup. He had no choice but to engage in a combat with the backups.

"Then you need to hurry up," Archer said, "Because Ariana can be a crazy woman." Archer extracted a smoke ball out of his pocket and tossed the ball to the ground.

"Consider yourself lucky," Lance said, turning towards the runway. He couldn't afford to waste time on capturing the two admins. Especially when they were known for their escapades.

The smoke filled the room and passed away soon enough. There were three men before the smoke came out and only one by the time they were done. Lance felt emotionally satisfied that he could at least make Proton realize the difference between them.

"I'll avenge you, Ash," he muttered to himself as he and his Dragonite proceeded to their next battleground.

* * *

Charizard lunged into the air, weaving itself the numerous attacks thrown by the Golbat and the Honchkrow. Honchkrow was Charizard's biggest trouble. It had no trouble keeping up with the pseudo-dragon. If it were a one-on-one the fire type would have attacked head on and overpowered it. But Honchkrow was what one would call a perfect Boss Pokémon in every sense of the word. It might not be strong enough to handle Charizard alone, but with the Golbat under its support, it was dangerous.

The Honchkrow's strategy was simple. It kept attacking Charizard with Dark Pulse and Haze forcing the fire type to attack back. That was when the Golbat should catch up to Charizard and hit it with Supersonic. The fire type had enough battle experience to not fall for that formation though. Instead of attacking Honchkrow back, it dodged the attacks and avoided the Golbat in the process.

The twelve Pokémon were racing high up in the sky with Charizard trying to use its superior flying ability to separate the Golbat from the Honchkrow. But the crow was clever enough to not be separated like that. Five of the Golbat formed a circle around Honchkrow and together they performed their Air Cutter while Honchkrow used a Dark Pulse.

Noticing the fire coming from below it, the fire type had to duck to its right to avoid the barrage. The remaining five Golbat lunged at Charizard, sensing the opportunity. Instead of avoiding them again, the fire type dove towards the ground catching the Golbat by surprise. Its two wings shone with a bright light as it struck two of the off-guard Golbat's with a Steel Wing. Honchkrow and the remaining five shifted their direction, and joined the three remaining Golbat. The nine Pokémon proceeded to chase the fire type which once again altered its flight path towards the sky.

As the Pokémon took a curve in the sky, Charizard turned around and performed a flamethrower at the formation. The flamethrower managed to strike an unaware Golbat and burned it to a crisp while the rest eight broke the formation and surrounded the fire type from all other directions. However, the fire type passed through the opening created by the flamethrower.

Behind the fire type, the Golbat and Honchkrow reformed and attacked the fire type once more. The said Pokémon dove away from the relentless attacking, but the boss Pokémon kept the attack on. Charizard was forced to stop its way down and take a left turn. Having an opportunity to catch up with the fire type, the Boss Pokémon ordered the Golbat to take the shorter diagonal path towards Charizard as the Pokémon moved along the sides of an imaginary rectangle. It added to the fire type's misery by using the move Haze. Golbat, being able to see through darkness thanks to their lack of eyes as Zubat managed to attack the pseudo-dragon.

The fire type was momentarily blinded by the ice type move; it had to force itself out of the smoky darkness to gain back its vision. No sooner did it manage to surface towards the bright sunlight, it found itself the target of the Acrobatics of seven Golbat. The first one struck it straight on the belly when it rose out of the smoke; the second struck it on the right as it tried to balance itself up. Before it could even think of flying straight up two more struck it on the back simultaneously, this time pushing the Pokémon towards the ground with more force.

Annoyed by the attacks, and the chattering noise created by the flaps of the Pokémon, Charizard let out a deep roar in frustration, blowing away the Golbat in the process. However the fire-type didn't expect an Aerial Ace on its chest when Honchkrow emerged out of nowhere and struck it when it least expected to.

The fire type slowly distanced itself as Honchkrow re-collected the frenzied Golbat. Charizard grumbled in pain and balanced itself at a safe distance away from the Golbat.

The battle was much more difficult than the fire type liked. It had pride as a fire type and it was being terribly stomped upon by the bullying Honchkrow. But one thing was clear for the pseudo-dragon, if it were to bring Honchkrow down beating the Golbat wouldn't be an issue.

Honchkrow stood in the center of the formation, with the Golbat circled around it. The only way to beat Honchkrow was to withstand any attack made by the Golbat and attack it head on. There was only one way it could beat Honchkrow, the fire type understood: It was its favorite style, brute force.

* * *

While Charizard was having a tough time in the air, Ash was having a much tougher time on the ground. Not only was he outnumbered, unlike Charizard he was even overpowered.

The Rocket Grunts were chasing all over the runway as he kept slipping past them. If it weren't for the fact that his life was at stake, he could have said that this resembled one of his childhood games.

His first plan was to run towards the airport building, but a grunt who seems to be much stronger physically managed to reach there before Ash could. His only escape route closed, Ash headed in the opposite direction so as to stay away from the rest of the grunts.

He didn't have to play this game forever. All he had to was stay away safe till Charizard came back after finishing the Golbat and Honchkrow. Little did he know it was going to take longer than he liked to.

He took the straight route down the runway. His best bet was to take the fencing on the far side of the runway, if he could climb the long wall that is. Yes, it would take him somewhere to the outskirts of Viridian City and would be more dangerous considering he had no Pokémon, but he had no other choice either other than run back and fall back into the hefty arms of Team Rocket.

He finally reached the dreaded wall, only to find it much taller than he initially estimated from the distance. Worse the wall was too smooth for him to climb up. In other words, he was screwed.

Ash gritted his teeth. If they were going to capture him, he had to put a good fight or squirm his way to buy some time. All he need to was give sometime for Charizard. If only his best friend Pikachu were by his side, the trainer winced. His favorite rodent and five other Pokémon were still in Ariana's possession. He had to beat this grunts, otherwise he wouldn't be able to save Pikachu and the others along with the two hundred people who were betting their lives on someone to rescue them. It was time for him to play the hero.

Thinking so the boy took a steady step forward or so he thought but the next thing he knew he fell face first onto the ground.

"W…What's going on?" Ash felt extremely dizzy all of a sudden. His heart was beating faster, out of his control. A feverish feeling swept through his body, and his stomach seemed like it wanted to empty itself. In other words he was feeling nausea.

Something was slowly invading his body, making it weaker by the second. In his attempt to escape, he hadn't noticed it spreading inside his body till that moment. He cursed as he remembered the fact that he was exposed to a direct hit from Golbat's Sludge Bomb earlier, and the attack had an additional effect in the form of poison.

_'Dammit,'_ he cussed at his own bad luck. He was barely conscious when he heard the footsteps approaching him. And then—

The footsteps stopped at a distance as something heavy landed in front of him, and stood like a wall between the grunts and him. "Charizard…?" The trainer mumbled weakly.

"Everything will be fine Ash," a voice said with a tone of assurance. "I'll protect you, no matter what."

* * *

Charizard lunged at the Pokémon in the center of the formation, Honchkrow. The dark type immediately took into the sky, as the Golbat surrounded the fire-type. The pseudo-dragon prepared its wings for another round of Steel Wing and tackled the nearest Golbat on its way. The remaining Golbat closely followed the Charizard, and attempted to distraught the Pokémon with Supersonic and Air Cutter. The fire type expected this to happen. If it were to attack Honchkrow it would fall prey to the Golbat.

That of course was Charizard's plan all along. If he were to chase Honchkrow, then the Golbat would open themselves to it, and that meant—

The fire spread its wings apart and stretched its tail. The flame on its tail slowly grew in size and then suddenly lit its entire body in a flaming aura. The flaming aura soon turned into blue energy as the fire completely enveloped the Pokémon. With a roar like none another, Charizard began to charge at all the Golbat around it.

The Golbat not expecting the sudden Flareblitz fell prey to the Pokémon's onslaught. In just a blink of an eye, the fire type managed to strike around six Golbat before the effect of Flareblitz vanished and painful recoil filled it instead.

The remaining Golbat and Honchkrow used the chance to attack the fire type. Honchkrow used a long distance Dark Pulse while Golbat performed an Acrobatics on the Pokémon's chest.

The accumulating damage was too much even for the Charizard. It had been hit by a lot number of Sludge Bombs, Dark Pulses, Acrobatics and what not in the few minutes of struggle. If it were anything else, it would have fainted by now. But the Pokémon held onto itself as it remembered the stakes for losing: Ash's life.

Honchkrow was almost cornered. It was left with a single Golbat as its cover. Ignoring any fatigue, the Pokémon stretched its wings and prepared for another round of bout. This time it wanted to make sure it was the last one.

Honchkrow shifted tactics. Instead of running away, it attacked the fire lizard head on with an Aerial Ace. Golbat followed suit and attacked with a swift Acrobatics. Charizard pumped energy into its wings creating a Steel Wing, and attempted to strike either Pokémon. The Boss Pokémon was clever enough not to attack Charizard head on, it passed over the Pokémon, but the Golbat wasn't so lucky. The Acrobatics and the Steel Wing met each other, the latter overpowering the former by a huge margin. The final Golbat fell to the ground. That's when Honchkrow finished its curve and struck the huge Pokémon on the behind.

With the excruciating pain from the Aerial Ace that was turned into a critical hit by Honchkrow's Super Luck, the fire type couldn't stay in the air anymore. The next thing it knew, it was crashing towards the ground for a second time that day.

* * *

"Gengar, Shadow ball!" The old woman Agatha exclaimed.

The battle outside the airport was much more chaotic than the battle inside it. Team Rocket grunts amounting to a number close to hundred were fighting the G-Men who amounted to a mere twenty.

Agatha took a deep breath as she examined the situation. The battle seemed like the Rockets had the advantage at first, but despite the low numbers the G-Men were winning. Besides, those Rocket members that lost their Pokémon were being captured by the otherwise helpless police force. Slowly, they were getting back the ground they wanted. She was mostly worried about the situation inside. What happened to the boy, Ash? The video signal was interrupted for some reason. If the Rockets were to stay by their word they might threaten to bomb the entire airport. But they wouldn't, considering how it was their only leverage. But they sure would kill a few people, something she couldn't afford to bear on her conscience.

"Agatha!" A familiar voice exclaimed. The woman's attention shifted to the sky where a familiar face riding a Dragonite appeared.

"Lance," the woman was surprised. "I thought you charged inside."

"No time to explain," Lance seemed like he was in a hurry. "Team Rocket killed that kid. They're planning to kill a few more in the next few minutes."

"What?" Agatha was shocked. The boy….Ash Ketchum, he was killed? "Wait…we can't just return their plane."

"I can't take this anymore," Lance muttered, his face full of disdain. "We can't let them kill more people. Could you do this favor for me?"

Agatha closed her eyes. "Okay," she said after much thought. The poor guy must be really devastated seeing Ash's death to have submitted himself to Team Rocket. Lance wasn't the type to bend to threats, but if even he was forced to do that, then who was she to stop it.

The woman picked her mobile and dialed a number. As she spoke to her underlings about releasing the plane, she didn't notice the vicious grin on Lance's face…or was it really Lance?

* * *

"The backup plan has been successfully executed," the woman Matori said, as emotionless as ever. "Petrel has disguised as Lance and successfully convinced Agatha to release the plane."

Giovanni didn't respond. He was still watching the television screen blankly with eyes that seemed lifeless. "Did Ariana kill the boy?" He asked, his voice seemed heavy for some reason.

"I'm not sure about that," Matori replied. "We have lost visual information before she pressed the trigger. But it is most likely."

"I see," Giovanni muttered. The room became eerily silent after that. Giovanni didn't utter a word after that. Matori didn't speak anything either as the situation didn't demand her to. She simply sat down by her desk and waited for further orders.

* * *

The fire type opened its eyes slowly. It was lying on the ground, a singed Honchkrow by its side. The Pokémon growled in delight. A few seconds earlier when Honchkrow struck it down to the ground, the fire type, in its desperation turned around and put all of its power into a final flamethrower before it crashed to the ground.

The flamethrower burned Honchkrow on the spot, and joined the pseudo-dragon in its fall down. In the end, the fight was a tie. An unsatisfactory result but better than a loss. It shifted its look to a distant fight between a Muk and a Dragonite. Apparently, someone else had come to Ash's rescue.

Its trainer was safe, under the protection of the red-haired man to which the Dragonite belonged. Realizing so, the Pokémon let itself fall unconscious again.

* * *

When Ash opened his eyes again, he found himself facing a white ceiling. The familiar smell of disinfectant tinged his nostrils. He was inside a hospital, the raven-haired realized without even looking at his surroundings.

Various tubes were attached to his body. He was dressed in a green hospital gown, and had an oxygen mask to his face.

"He's awake," a woman wearing a white over white skirt smiled.

"Ash," a familiar voice called his name softly. His mother stood by the door, an expression of anxiety on her face till she spotted that he was indeed awake. She was wearing her usual pink blouse over blue knee-length skirt.

Behind her was an old man wearing a white coat, the old Professor Oak. Many more familiar faces poured in as he caught a glimpse of a redhead girl, a dark skinned squint-eyed teenager all eager to enter the small room that was crooked enough with all the equipment around.

He smiled at everyone, assuring that he was fine. There was a prickling pain on his back where Sludge Bomb had hit, but otherwise he was fine. He must have been in a terrible position by the time he came to the hospital he deduced by the equipment around.

"Can we see him doctor?" His mother asked the man wearing a white lab coat.

"Of course," the doctor smiled back. "I'll check him in ten minutes." He said checking his watch. "He's mostly fine."

Ash plucked the mask attached to his nose as his friends and family surrounded the bed. "I was so worried," his mother said with a heavy tone as she clasped his hand. Her eyes were moist.

"I'm fine," he muttered with quite difficulty.

"And I thank Arceus for that," his mother said. He felt her moist tears fall on his hand.

"All of us were really worried," Professor Oak spoke. "The whole thing was on the television."

"Charizard saved me," Ash said, trying to shift to a sitting position. "I would have been dead if it weren't for him."

"Don't say that," Misty said, rubbing her eyes. "I was actually freaked out when the news channels said you died."

"Putting the sad things aside," Brock said, a smile on his face. "Charizard is in the Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy said he will recover by tonight."

"You must thank Lance more than anyone," Professor Oak said. "He risked his life to save you. He suffered some troublesome injuries."

"What happened to Team Rocket?" Ash asked, curious. At that moment the expression on everyone's face turned dull like a bulb with a broken fuse.

"What's wrong, guys?" Ash asked, realizing something was wrong.

"They managed to get away with whatever they wanted," Brock said, a frown on his face. "Someone posed as Lance and fooled the G-Men into releasing Team Rocket's plane."

"What?" Ash was shocked. "They couldn't have…" He gritted his teeth. In the end, team Rocket had its way.

"Forget about it honey," Delia said pushing back to sleep. "You need rest. The police will deal those things."

How could he forget about it? After the nightmare he faced today, how could he simply forget about what Team Rocket did? They took him hostage, stole his Pokémon and tied him up for SIX hours.

Wait a minute…

"Where are my remaining Pokémon?" Ash asked, shifting his gaze from his mother to Brock.

"Ah," Brock opened his mouth to say something. "About that Ash," Brock stuttered a bit.

"They're fine," his mother said, giving him a reassuring smile.

But the raven-haired was far from convinced. "Where are they?" He asked again, this time looking into Brock's eyes.

The Pokémon Doctor averted Ash's gaze and looked down. "Where is Pikachu?" Ash asked again, this time shifting his gaze to Professor Oak who repeated Brock's actions.

"Where are my Pokémon?" Ash asked, raising his voice as none of them replied. "Pikachu, Oshawott, Pignite, Snivy, Unfezant and Scraggy. There were six of them."

"Mom," he turned to the auburn-haired woman who remained equally silent. "What happened to Pikachu?"

"After Team Rocket left," Misty finally answered. "They recovered everything they took away. Your Pokéball weren't among them."

The news landed like a Thunder in Ash's heart. As far as he remembered he was the only person on the plane to have Pokéball on him. So someone among the Team Rocket must have taken his Pokéball away. Surely carrying six of them wouldn't need much effort, would it?

He just lost his best friend to a mafia organization, Ash realized.

* * *

**Another Cliffhanger? God you hate me, right? Anyway, right now Ash lost five of his Unovan Pokemon along with Pikachu. Team Rocket have disappeared to god knows where. What will Ash do, right now? And how the hell is all of this connected to Reshiram or Zekrom?**

**Next Chapter: The Search for Pikachu**

**Also, I have recently opened a poll to decide who to pair Ash with in this story. Yes, instead of going for harem like every other time I decided to focus on one single girl. The poll will be open till June 15th and will be a closed one. So, only I will know who is winning or who is losing. So vote as fast as you can and make more people vote for your favorite Ash girl if you want her to win. By June 15th I will have one more chapter for this fic.**

**The plot will not make any sense right now because even I don't have a clear idea (lol true). But by next chapter, I will work things out and set up things.**


	4. The Search for Pikachu

**Stage One: ****Reshiram**

**Arc One: Team Rocket versus Team Plasma**

**Chapter Three: The Search for Pikachu**

**Location: Viridian City, Region: Kanto**

"Pikachu," Ash's voice shook. Professor Oak saw the shock in Ash's face when he heard the news. It was as if his own brother was kidnapped. Of course it wasn't far from the truth that Ash considered Pikachu as a brother. He was there when Ash first received Pikachu. Pikachu was untamed, not used to humans and somewhat brash. From there on, they grew up into the deepest of the friends. The bond they share, it was things like these that intrigue him the most.

"I'm sorry Ash," his mother placed a hand on Ash's arm. The Professor felt sorry for Delia. She was in a tight position. Losing Pikachu was painful news, but the more painful fact for a mother was revealing the news to him. She was scared, knowing that Ash would definitely go after Team Rocket to get back Pikachu. It was something she couldn't afford, after nearly losing her only son and her only family.

Ash was in shock, but not for a long time. He could see the fierce resolution returning back to the young man's eyes. It was predictable considering Ash would do anything for his Pokémon. He didn't know if he was to be happy as a Pokémon Professor, or be worried as a family friend.

"I will bring back Pikachu," he said clutching onto the white sheets. "And I'm going to save Pignite and the others as well."

"Ash," his mother attempted to calm the boy. It was perhaps time for him to step up. Ash wouldn't listen unless he had an authoritative voice explain him.

"The G-Men are tracking for Team Rocket as we speak," he said, gathering the boy's attention. "They will be brought to justice in no time. I'm pretty sure they will save Pikachu and all other Pokémon they have stolen. You just recovered from poisoning, you need to give your body some rest."

"But Professor," the boy protested weakly. "How can I rest when Pikachu is danger?" He clenched his fists in anger, not at Team Rocket but probably at himself for losing his Pokémon. "I will help the G-Men search for Team Rocket and—"

"Ash," he interrupted the boy. "How many times was Pikachu stolen by Team Rocket?" The boy replied it with silence. Taking it as an answer, the Professor answered. "Pikachu will be back. Forget about it and lie down for a while. You must be still feeling drowsy from the medication."

The boy remained silent. He looked down, staring at the white sheets blankly. The expression on his restless brown eyes, the frown on his face suggested the Professor that the boy was far from convinced. But he had at least refrained himself from getting up from the bed. It was a positive indication.

Delia gave him a thankful smile. She couldn't have been able to convince Ash, so she was grateful for it. The professor acknowledged her smile with a nod.

"Professor," the boy spoke again after a brief silence. "How is Charizard?"

"Charizard is fine," the Professor assured. The Pokémon was severely injured, but it had the raw strength, resolve to survive them. "He's resting in the Pokémon Center right now."

It was amazing how the fire-dragon travelled somewhere from Johto just so that it could save its trainer. Maybe it could be the same for his other Pokémon had they been informed of the same. Fortunately or unfortunately, they were all left in the dark.

"He saved me when it counted," Ash said, apparently having a similar line of thought. "This is the second time."

"Pokémon can do amazing things when they are by our side," the Professor said, going into his philosophical mode. Studying Pokémon's relation with humans was his main field of study, and there couldn't be better examples than Ash and Charizard when it comes to the bond between humans and Pokémon. "That's why we need to respect Pokémon and be grateful for their existence."

"You need to thank Lance too," Brock said. "He's the one who actually saved you in the end."

Ash took the information in silence. "Where is he now?" He asked, somewhat eager to meet the person who saved his life.

"He's right here in the hospital," Misty replied. "He was injured in the process of saving you," she said, a wry smile on her lips. When Misty arrived in Viridian, he could see that she was almost on the verge of breaking. Ash must be lucky—or rather he deserved such wonderful friends who care for him so deeply.

"It's not anything life threatening though," the Professor added. He noticed that Delia was silent throughout the conversation. Maybe she didn't want Ash stressing his brain over other things right now. "Well, in any case. I think it's better if we leave Ash with his mother. We can always talk later, right?" The Professor said, asking the other two to follow him.

Misty threw one final glance towards Ash, before following Brock outside. Delia nodded to the Professor in acknowledgment. "Well, take care of yourself Ash. And don't worry your mother too much." After that he left the fifteen year old with his mother.

* * *

**Location: Unknown, Region: Unova.**

The copter landed cautiously on the helipad, as the rotor blades on the vehicle continued to spin with a characteristic whirring noise. The blond woman covered as the wind blasted on her face, along with a good amount of dust that rose from the ground. She was definitely not a fan of standing in such a position, but the person inside the copter was important enough for her to ignore the mild discomfort.

The rest of the grunts behind her stood like trained soldiers, their muscles tensed from the fact that the boss of the entire organization called Team Rocket was about to land.

The whirring noise came to an end, as the chopper finally secured itself on the ground. The door was opened by a grunt, wearing similar black uniform like the men behind her. He jumped down, giving way for the man who was behind him.

The man wearing an orange suit finally took a step out, a firm confident smile on his face. He looked at the blue sky rather than the men who came to receive him, not acknowledging their presence as anything noteworthy. "Unova huh," he muttered, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Team Rocket's new home."

Domino couldn't help but roll her eyes at this. She was not a fan of the transfer much like many other Team Rocket members, although her reasons were rather different. What she didn't comprehend was that why Giovanni had sacrificed the integrity of the organization for this transfer? He practically left all of his members to the air in the process of the transfer.

She deserved an answer for that. "Giovanni," she spoke in a formal tone. She was chummy with him when they were alone, but that's because of her well rather hidden motives. But when they were with other grunts, she would try to be better-behaved. "I'd like to know why we had to undertake this transfer from Kanto to Unova, especially at the cost of sixty percent of our grunt force." Yes, in the process of stealing the cargo from Viridian City, Team Rocket had to go all out and send each and every of its grunt against the G-Men. Right after they acquired the database, Giovanni ordered them to abandon their positions and escape to the harbor. Around 125 Team Rocket grunts were arrested in this process, leaving the already weakened organization with less than eighty members. She could act like she was being the voice of all the grunts, and demand more information out of Giovanni's head. He's been rather secretive lately.

Giovanni's secretary Matori, who followed right after him now stood beside the Rocket Boss. "Lord Giovanni has no need to explain anything to anyone," she said with a tone that was devoid of emotions. "You are required to brief on the situation in Kanto first."

"Ah, let it be," Giovanni's face lightened, a stark contrast to his usual dark expression. "Domino," he said, looking down at the blond. "While on their mission to conquer Unova," he said. "My loyal agents Jessie, James and Meowth have recently discovered about the possibility of the greatest Pokémon that could rival even Mew."

A Pokémon that could rival Mew? Mew was the essence of Team Rocket's existence. Team Rocket was built on the single mission to capture the strongest Pokémon Mew many years ago. So, they have decided to move onto another Pokémon?

"Lately, I have been of the opinion that we have a spy inside Team Rocket," he said, scanning Domino with his dangerous looks, as if to check her reaction when he used the words 'spy'. "Why do the G-Men always know about our operations beforehand? Why do they always come right when plan something?"

"And that's why I have decided that Kanto is no longer feasible for us. It is time to start things afresh. Yes, the spy will be a problem but I have made a few amendments in my policy."

No wonder she was getting no information about the missions.

"So, the spy will no longer be a problem," he said, confidently. "Besides, once we have our hands on that treasure, even the G-Men won't be able to take us head on. Team Rocket will become a superpower that no other can reach. As for the grunts who have been arrested—" he said, looking at the grunts behind her. "Those who have been caught by the police are incompetent in my eyes. And because no one including my secretary knows anything about this transfer to Unova, I am sure the police won't be able to find anything from them."

So, that's how it was planned to be. After repeated humiliations at the hands of G-Men, he had finally changed his policy. He didn't tell what was in the cargo until it was needed. No one except the pilot of the chopper knew where they were headed. He was just one single person, but he moved many more people to where he wanted without letting them know it.

Amazing, Giovanni.

"So now that we have finished talking trivia," he said, the expression on his face turning serious again. "How is the cargo doing?"

"Just as planned," Domino said. "The cargo will be taking the ship route through the Decorola Archipelago to reach Unova. We've arranged three decoy ships with Arianna, Archer and Proton on it. Petrel has the cargo, their ship is under the fake name Royal Unova. The ships will start tonight in Kanto. They'll be here by next week."

"Good," he muttered. "The G-Men don't have any men in these islands. So, if the spy in our organization will try to disrupt us, they will do it today."

Because once these ships leave Viridian port, they'll never be able to find them. And even Team Rocket members don't know which way the ships were headed.

* * *

**Three hours later…**

"…That's when I said, Ash Ketchum was my son," his mother smiled as she said. "My friend was shocked. She told her daughter has watched you on the television during the Sinnoh League and has a crush on you."

"Really?" Ash was petrified. How could people have crush on anything they see on the television was beyond him. Then again, the concept of love itself was foreign to him. "Is her daughter a Pokémon trainer too?" Ash asked, just to maintain the conversation.

"Well, she recently became one," his mother said, "She's fourteen, she should have started four years back but her mother didn't like parting with her. You know not all moms understand their children like me," she said, feeling a bit proud of her open-mindedness.

Ash chuckled at this. "Thanks Mom. I guess I should be grateful for that," he added jokingly as either of them laughed.

"Ah, it seems like the mother and son are having a good time," Professor Oak greeted them as he entered the room. "Are you feeling better now, Ash?"

"A lot," he said, pumping his fist. Truth be told, he was still exhausted when he last woke up. He wanted to join the search for Team Rocket, but the anti-biotic he was injected with, worked him into sleep. His mother sat by his side throughout, and engrossed him in a conversation right after he got up. "Professor, can I help the G-Men now?" He asked, eagerly. Yes, he was really tired a while back, but there was no reason stopping him now, right? "I can't just sit like this hoping for someone to find Pikachu."

For some reason, the Professor exchanged a glance with his mother. "Ash," his mother spoke, "It's true you are feeling better but I think it's better if you rest some more. These people seem like they are a lot more dangerous than your regular Team Rocket members."

"Mom, they have Pikachu," he couldn't comprehend behind her logic. His best friend was struck inside a Pokéball, waiting for him to save. How could he not go because it's dangerous? If Charizard thought the same way, he could have been dead by now. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to save Pikachu."

"Ash, stop thinking in a one-sided way," Professor Oak raised his voice. "Just think about your mother and how much she has suffered when you were taken by Team Rocket. Thinking about your Pokémon is a good quality, but you must understand your mother too. The G-Men will save Pikachu."

But...what if they couldn't. Would he be able to live with himself if they fail and he would lose Pikachu forever? But the Professor was right too. His mother was worried about him and besides the G-Men work with a motive to end Team Rocket's stupid crimes. They'll somehow save Pikachu.

What should he do? Follow his urge to save Pikachu or be responsible and think logically.

_"When the truth is unclear follow the ideal."_

That voice—!

Ash looked around, wondering where the voice came from. His sudden actions confused his already worried mother and the Professor. "What's wrong, Ash?"

Ash wondered if he should answer the question or not. The voice appeared only once in his head. He wasn't even sure if he heard the voice or not. It could be just his hallucination. His mom could get worried if she tells that for sure. "It's nothing," he said. "I just thought I heard something."

When the truth is unclear…follow the ideal?

What does it even mean? Why did these lines pop into his mind? Were they a fabrication of his imagination or was it someone secretly whispering into his mind. He wasn't sure.

What was the truth? Pikachu was in trouble. He was taken by a couple of Team Rocket members, most probably the dangerous woman who almost killed him. She's high up in Team Rocket, and the chances of the G-Men catching her…well it was not pretty. The truth was: Pikachu's in danger and completely helpless. But at the same time, his mother was too worried for him because his life could really fall in danger.

The ideal way to deal this? He should search for Pikachu, but if it gets life-threatening, he'll step back and take the G-Men's help and then save Pikachu.

Yes, his mother was worried but he could take care of himself if he was cautious, right? He was reckless when he tried to stop Ariana back in the plane and it almost cost him his life. He would have to plan properly this time and take on with caution. If things get really dangerous, he could always step back and ask the G-Men for help.

"Ash?" His mother shook him from his thoughts. "Are you still planning to search for Pikachu?"

He sighed and muttered, "No."

Yes.

Professor Oak frowned at Ash, making the raven-haired wonder if the old man has caught his intentions. He looked away towards the wall on the otherside, trying his best to hide his expression. "Anyway," the Professor finally budged. "Brock just received a call from Johto. Your friends May and Dawn are coming to Viridian."

May and Dawn? They must be participating in the Wallace Cup at this point. Did they ditch the cup just to visit him? Damn, he must have really worried all of them. Judging by things, even Iris and Cilan could come to Kanto to visit him.

"That's so nice of them," his mother seemed delighted. "See that, Ash? Your friends are coming for you. Should I prepare a special dinner for them?"

He knew his mother was asking for making him feel better but having a special dinner without Pikachu around sounded terrible to Ash. But at the same, he couldn't hurt her. "Anything's fine, mom."

"Alright then," she said, standing up. "I'm pretty sure Misty and Brock might be waiting to talk to you. I'll leave you to your friends."

"Professor," he asked as his mother left. "Can I get out of my bed now, it's really boring to sit around all day."

"Oh, you were discharged three hours ago actually," Professor Oak smiled. "Your mother brought you spare clothes. It's in my trunk, I'll have them delivered to you."

"Thanks," he nodded. The Professor left soon after, leaving the Pokémon trainer alone.

Good, once he gets his clothes back. It's time for the search for Pikachu to begin. But first, he should get out of this room.

Still in his hospital gown, Ash Ketchum walked out of the room that seemed more like a prison to him.

"Hey Ash where are you going?" A familiar voice greeted him as soon as he stepped out. It was Misty, accompanied by Brock. It actually had been a long time since he saw either of them. He didn't want to ignore them when they had come this far just for him.

"Hey Misty," he greeted with a sheepish grin. "I was—" What reason should he use? Bathroom was definitely not a valid reason. "Planning to visit Lance. He saved my life and all."

"I suppose it's a good thing," she said, tapping her lips with her forefinger in a thoughtful expression. "Wow, I am surprised. You can be considerate too."

"What's that supposed to mean," he narrowed his eyes, pretending to pout. "I was always a good guy."

"She's just teasing you," Brock added, cheerfully. "Well, in that case we'll accompany you."

So much for being a good guy.

"Ah, okay," he said. He had no reason to refuse. "I need to change my clothes first, though." He said, looking at his gown.

"Why you look pretty in that," Misty teased again. For some reason Ash didn't get mad by her taunts. He knew she was just kidding to lighten up the mood.

"Alright guys, let's go," he said, asking his two friends to follow him.

* * *

"Our spy has reported that that Team Rocket's ships will depart from here by tonight," a man in his twenties was speaking to Lance. The said man was wearing a red jacket over blue jeans, and sported the G-Men's logo, a Pokéball on his chest. "We need to make haste and move."

Lance himself was dressed in a similar green hospital gown. He was injured in many places thanks to the attack Proton did when he was on his way to save Ash. Luckily he retuned half the favor by defeating the Weavile with his Dragonite. Defeating a high level ice type was always a satisfaction to him, no matter how strong he became. Lance's injuries forced him to wear a bandage around his forehead, and a few small bits to cover the various bruises on his cheek, on his elbow and many other places. His body was a mess, and he could barely walk without one of his bone lashing him back with intense pain. It's funny how his Dragonite took more damage from the same fall and was now almost back to full health. Humans are fragile creatures, he mused.

"How many of our men are able to mobilize and search?" Lance asked. He knew for a fact that most of them were as badly as injured as he was or even worse.

"Three," the man admitted, rather hesitantly. "Including me."

"Three?" Lance was shocked. There were around twenty men in his command back when he attacked Team Rocket. He heard more people from Johto had joined to fight the overwhelming number of Rocket grunts. In the end, they managed to capture 125 grunts though. The situation was really bad then. "Did you ask support from Hoenn or Sinnoh?" The Johto and Kanto men were completely exhausted from the huge fight.

"I did, but they will be too late," Andrews said. "The ships start by midnight. Their grunts have scattered after fighting us. Team Rocket is waiting for them."

"Three might be enough to find the cargo in a ship, right?" Lance asked. Those three would have to use stealth though. There was no way they could fight a ship full of Rockets.

"Their approximate number is eighty according to the spy," he muttered. "And they're spread in four ships not one. Worse, Petrel is the one with the cargo."

Petrel, the master of disguises? He was the one who convinced Agatha that he was Lance. He was not only a master, but he was also smart enough to use the disguise to his advantage. He would obviously camouflage the Rocket ship and pass away as some passenger ship.

"At this rate—" Lance muttered. He was about to speak something else when his colleague signaled with his hand to silence him. The red-haired Champion's attention shifted to the entrance, where three familiar faces stood, staring at them awkwardly. It was a raven-haired boy, dressed in a white-blue jacket over blue jeans. A red-haired girl with a short pony tail, wearing a sleeveless top and a matching yellow short. and lastly a squint-eyed man, wearing a brown jacket over green t-shirt.

"Who are you?" His colleague asked, rather brusquely.

"It's fine Andrews," Lance smiled at the young people. "They're friends. You must know Ash, right?"

Andrews blinked for a second as he examined the raven-haired boy. It was indeed the boy in the news, the man's face expression told his realization.

"I'm sorry for overhearing the conversation," Ash scratched his hair sheepishly. "I didn't listen anything important, though."

"I trust you Ash," Lance chuckled. "Heck, I am planning to get you into my organization someday."

Lance's words earned a gasp from everyone else, including Andrews. "Lance," Andrews protested. "You know we have a procedure for recruitment."

"I was kidding Andrews," Lance smiled. "Though, I think he'll pass all of the tests with his eyes closed in two more years."

Andrews frowned at this. Lance remembered that Andrews came from a poor family and had worked pretty hard to become a good trainer and it took him five tries to get into the G-Men. So he'd obviously find him praising Ash a bit difficult. Lance made a mental note to hold his praises.

"I just wanted to give my thanks for yesterday," Ash said, bowing to him. "I know words aren't enough to repay you. If there's anything I can do—"

"You don't need to thank me Ash," Lance smiled at the boy's attitude. "If anything, I must thank you for letting me save you." Had he not fought the Rockets till the end, Ash could have wound up dead and he would have lived with that guilt forever because it was his decision to attack the Rockets instead of showing weakness. If it were anyone else…they would have died.

Of course, Ash who didn't understand Lance's line of thought looked befuddled.

"I hope you are not planning to go with him Ash," his girlfriend whose name slipped Lance's mind said. "You just came back from death," her face showed genuine concern.

"Just to make it clear young lady," Andrews cleared his throat. "Even if we're short on men, we won't take your friend to search for Team Rocket."

Lance didn't like Andrews' decision. Being stubborn with rules at times like this wasn't good. But then again, Lance didn't want Ash to go with Andrews either. If something were to happen to him…the injuries Lance was suffering now would be kinda pointless, right?

Ash looked down defeated. Apparently going with the G-Men was in his mind then. "Andrews," Ash said, finally raising his head. "My Pikachu and five other Pokémon are with Ariana. Could you save them for me?"

"All of Rocket's Pokémon will be confiscated when we capture them," Andrews replied proudly. "Your Pokémon will be perfectly fine too."

Ash nodded in agreement. But somehow….Lance felt he was lying.

* * *

"What next?" Misty asked, as the trio walked out of Lance's room. Ash was disappointed to say the least. He expected Lance to let him tag along but the Andrews guy literally shunned him.

Follow the ideal path….what the heck was he doing?

"I want to talk with Charizard," Ash said. If it weren't for his old buddy, he would have been dead meat. "Misty, could you go and tell my mom that we are going to the Pokémon Center? She could be worried."

The redhead hesitated for a second. "Only me?"

"I can't wait to see Charizard," Ash scratched his cheek. "I will be at the Pokémon Center, so just tell Mom and hurry back."

Misty gave Ash and odd look. Yes, his request was strange. He normally wouldn't request others to do his work unless he was in a pretty tired or feeling lazy that day. It was kinda weird, yes. He noticed that Brock was wearing a similar confused look. "It's alright, Misty. We'll be waiting for you in the Pokémon Center," Brock said.

"Okay," Misty said, giving Ash one final suspicious glance before walking back.

"Let's go Brock," Ash said, giving his friend his most innocent smile.

* * *

The Viridian Center was pretty close to the hospital. Ash has slowly raised his pace along the way, showing his eagerness to meet Charizard while Brock did the same for Nurse Joy. Within no time, they were inside the familiar building.

"Oh boy," Brock said as they walked through the automatic sliding doors. His face was obviously flushed. "I can't wait to see the Viridian Nurse Joy after all these days."

The duo walked towards the reception counter where the woman wearing the pink uniform stood, a smile on her face. "Oh hello Ash," the Nurse greeted the familiar face. "Your Charizard has been eagerly waiting for you."

"Thanks Nurse," Ash smiled back. "Is he ready to go?"

"Of course," the Nurse beamed. "I've heard he saved you from Team Rocket. He's really a brave Charizard."

"And I'm a brave Brock," Brock said in a low, flirtatious tone. He held her arms, "Now Nurse Joy, how long has it been?"

"I'll go check Charizard," Ash said, smiling at the infatuation crazed Brock.

"He's in the checkup room behind," Nurse Joy said, trying desperately to escape Brock in a polite manner. It was impossible without Misty or Croagunk around. "Chansey, help Ash out." She said to the Pokémon standing beside her.

The pseudo dragon wasn't so hard to find thanks to his immense presence. He was lying in a chamber surrounded by glass walls, sleeping peacefully as he had nothing else to do. Watching him brought many emotions back to Ash. He was the same Charizard who ruined his chances in the Indigo League. Their relationship was so terrible back then…and now it has grown to a point that Charizard was willing to travel miles of distance just to save him.

"Chansey," the Egg Pokémon hummed as it opened the doors for Ash.

Ash walked towards the Pokémon as silently as he could. He didn't want to disturb the Pokémon's sleep. At the same time…he didn't have much time. He placed his hand on the Pokémon's warm belly.

The Pokémon's tail moved, as it turned around, tickled by the new presence. The Pokémon lifted its head and gave a growl. "Sorry to wake you up," Ash smiled. The Pokémon growled back, perhaps saying that he wasn't really asleep.

"Thank you for yesterday, Charizard," he said, the gratitude showing on his face. The Pokémon's face turned into a frown as it growled something. Maybe it didn't like the idea of him thanking.

"Charizard," Ash said, his face turning serious. "Team Rocket got Pikachu."

The Pokémon was taken aback by this. The trainer continued, "We need to save him. I don't have much time though. The others will try stopping me, Misty especially." He paused to let his words sink. "I can count on you know, right?"

The Pokémon opened its jaws in response to this and let out a small blast of fire on his face. It wasn't a serious flamethrower, just a warning to Ash that he shouldn't ask that question again. Ash smiled at this. "I'll be waiting for you outside. I'll get your Pokéball somehow."

* * *

When Ash returned back to the main hall, he found Brock still flirting with Nurse Joy. Had it been Officer Jenny she would have cut him off, but the Nurse being the polite woman she was, had to bear with it.

That's what he wanted anyway.

He walked to the nearest videophone and dialed the number he was so familiar with. The phone rang for some time before a face appeared on the screen. "Hello," a boy in his late teens greeted Ash. "Oh, it's you Ash," Tracey's face beamed when he saw Ash. "How are you? You were all over the news."

"I'm fine now," Ash greeted back. He tried his best not to look as if he was in a hurry. "Tracey, I need you to do a favor."

"Oh," the Pokémon Sketcher looked surprised. "What is it?"

"I need a few Pokémon can you send them for me?" He asked. "I lost my other Pokémon to Team Rocket. So, I'm kinda low on them."

"What do you mean by lost to Team Rocket?" Tracey was only getting more and more surprises. It was understandable considering how he was left in the lab alone. He was dark to most things that were happening here.

"I'm kinda in an emergency," he said, turning back. Brock was still talking to Nurse Joy and Misty was out of the sight. A good thing Brock walked pretty fast to see Nurse Joy. He had to leave before Misty comes or she would really kill him. "I'll explain things later. I want Sceptile, Krookodile, Heracross, Buizel and send Charizard's Pokéball." The first three because they were the Pokémon that came first onto his mind and were strong enough to deal something like that Ariana's Honchkrow or Muk while the last was the water type he needed, in case he had to give a chase through water.

It was sensible because he heard something along the lines of the word 'ship' when they accidentally heard Lance's conversation. Team Rocket was probably going by the sea route. He made a mental note to take a look at the Viridian City's that was hanging by the entrance.

"All done," Tracey said, as Ash collected the five balls that came one after the other. "I'm not sure what's going on there but as long as the Professor is with you, I shouldn't worry much."

_'You have a lot to worry now, Tracey. Because you are my escape ticket.'_ He thought to himself. "Well, I'll call you back later," Ash said, disconnecting the conversation.

He stared at the five Pokéball in his hand, a smile on his face. Yes, he had enough firepower to put up a fight.

* * *

The words Mrs. Ketchum said still rang in Misty's mind mind as she ran towards the Pokémon Center.

_"Misty, I think he's trying to slip away. Don't leave his side no matter what.'_

She and Mrs. Ketchum had a brief talk about Ash. She told Misty that it was suspicious how Ash agreed so easily to let rescuing Pikachu to the G-Men. And that's precisely why she was running rather than walking to the Pokémon Center.

_'You better not run away, Ash Ketchum!' _ She thought to herself.

The Pokémon Center was slowly coming to her view, as she raced towards the dome-shaped building that stood in the middle of the main road that connected to it. However, the scene that happened after that left the girl completely stunned and motionless.

"Chaaaaa!"

Letting out a deep roar like none another, she saw a Charizard rocketing into the sky. Her hopes dashed into the imaginary gutter when she saw a raven-haired boy, sitting on top of the Pokémon, an apologetic expression on his face when he saw her from the distance.

"ASH KETCHUM!" She yelled at the top of her voice, expecting her yell to stop them. But neither the Pokémon nor the trainer paid any heed to her. Her attention immediately shifted to the Pokémon Center. "Brock, if you are flirting with Nurse Joy, you are so dead!"

* * *

"Achoo!" Brock sneezed for some reason.

"Do you have a cold?" Nurse Joy asked, hoping she could get rid of him. She wanted to suggest him to go to the clinic nearby.

"As long as I am standing by your warm heart," Brock smiled, brushing his hair. "No."

* * *

**The Viridian Docks**

The Viridian City in fact doesn't have a direct sea route as the heart of the city was surrounded by land. However one could say that it was connected to the sea if one were to go to the far east of the outskirts of the city, where the road diverged towards the Indigo Plateau,

Most people would rather take a flight or a train from Viridian City to travel long distances like Unova. However, that didn't make the Viridian docks any less usable. Although strict prohibitions were thrown, and the Kanto's Navy department had deployed a couple of people for patrolling purposes, the wrong people always used the sea route to export illegal stuff to outside. Most importantly, Team Rocket had a huge grip around the region as Viridian was the former location of their secret base.

"I can't believe the boss ditched us in that hell-hole," the blond Cassidy said, her hair blowing from the wind blasting on her face. They stole an open top convertible from some random Joe to make their way towards the Viridian Docks. They wouldn't have even known that Team Rocket was migrating to some other region had they not called a few of their friends who have succeeded in not getting caught.

Cassidy and Butch, two of the well-known Team Rocket members were currently racing through the said route right now, after successfully pulling a prison break. They were normally used to Giovanni getting them out of the jails. It was perhaps the first time they had to pull a Prison Break.

"Yeah, it sucks to be us, you know?" Butch who was on the wheel said. "I mean, James and the others have suddenly become popular, and we are dropping in terms of being bad-ass. Judging by our luck these days, I am thinking some random twerp will stop us next."

"Hey you guys!"

No sooner did Butch utter the words, the Rocket grunts realized something huge was hovering over their heads.

Butch and Cassidy looked, and found a familiar looking twerp riding an oversized Charizard that was strong enough to carry its trainer for some reason. "What the flip!" He exclaimed, slamming the brakes. The vehicles' wheels screeched to a halt on the highway road, turning a good 90 degrees in the process.

"Why the hell do you have to jinx everything?" Cassidy yelled at the green-haired as the Charizard landed a few feet away from the car.

"Team Rocket," the raven-haired boy yelled as he jumped off his overgrown lizard. "Return my Pikachu back!"

"What?" Butch looked annoyed. He pulled that stunt just to hear this? "Why the flip would we want your Pikachu?" He was frustrated already, and on top that this twerp stopped them to ask about a puny Pikachu? Of course he was mad.

"Then why did you guys always try to steal my Pikachu," he asked, glaring with his fierce brown eyes.

"It's because that flipping cat is flipping obsessed about your flipping rat," he said, venting his frustration. "So, you should flipping get off our faces, because we have a flipping boat to catch and have no flipping time!" He turned to his partner, "Say something, Cassidy!"

"Wow, it's a good thing you censor the f-word," she said, wide-eyed. She turned to the twerp, who seemed to be short of patient too. "We don't have your Pikachu, okay? So, if you kindly remove that overrated dragon from the view, we can drive our way to the port."

"I won't let you," the boy clenched his fists. "I don't care if you have stolen my Pikachu or not. Just tell me where Ariana is."

"What the flip?" Butch stomped his foot against the ground. "I understand that flipping James may have ruined our reputation, but do we look like a bunch of cowards to you?!"

At this, the Charizard stepped forward and let out a burst form flames out of its mouth, aimed at the convertible, sending the occupants scurrying in fear. Luckily for them, the flamethrower barely avoided the vehicle and hit the part of the road to the Convertible's right. The Rocket grunts watched comprehensively in fear as the part of the road where the flamethrower hit melted into a mass of grey.

"Yikes!" Butch exclaimed, shaking in fear.

"Be careful with cars," the boy warned the Pokémon. He turned to the grunts, and glared at the duo. "Well, sorry my Charizard isn't just as polite, he wants to save his friend badly."

Cassidy rolled her eyes at Butch's reaction. "Well boy, since you have been so convincing," she winced as she noticed Butch still shivering, looking at the molten tar. "We will give you a clue that Team Rocket has a ship anchored far away from the port just outside the patrolling zone. You will need to travel quite a distance using that overgrown dragon of yours. So it's better if you start now. The ship starts as soon as night falls."

"Good," the boy smirked, turning around. "Let's go, Charizard." The Pokémon lowered itself as the boy mounted. Judging by the way he mounted it, the boy seems to be unfamiliar with mounting his Pokémon. The Pokémon let out a growl before rocketing into the sky.

The sky was slowly turning dim, and the distant sun was slowly settling down to sleep, a lone hero drifted off into the darkness searching for his lost friend.

"Hey Cassidy," Butch asked, noticing that Cassidy was lost in her own world. "Why the flip did you tell him about the ship?"

Cassidy laughed, albeit haughtily. "We have four ships," she said, settling down. "And I just gave him the location of the farthest one. He won't know the difference between a Rocket ship and a cargo ship anyway. We'll sneak into the one that is disguised as Royal Unova though."

"Just like good ol' S.S Anne," Butch snickered. "Yeah, we can pretend to be rich people, eat good food and what not. I feel really sorry for the twerp though, he's running into Proton."

Poor naïve boy, Cassidy thought. The ship they led him to was the bait ship for G-Men. He will land in the face of the strongest and the cruelest Team Rocket Admin, Proton. He's going to lose the rest of his Pokémon too.

* * *

**Thanks to his naivety, Ash is moving in the wrong direction. Instead of heading towards the ship where Ariana is, he is travelling towards the most dangerous Rocket Admin, Proton. Proton is wounded from the fact that he lost to Lance (Weavile vs. Dragonite in the previous chapter) in such a terrible fashion as he always assumed him to be Lance's equal. Will Ash suffer the consequences of this or will he escape the clutches of the Rocket Admin?**

**Meanwhile, what will Misty, Brock and the others do after having discovered that Ash was running into trouble? Will May and Dawn join these two in an attempt to aid Ash?**

**What are the three G-Men who are assigned to search for Petrel doing? Will any of them save Ash? **

**What is Pikachu's fate? Will it be a prisoner forever along with Ash's other Pokémon? **

**Who is this mysterious spy inside Team Rocket who is leaking almost every of Giovanni's plan to the G-Men?**

**What is the mysterious voice that is guiding Ash?**

**Most of these questions will be answered in the next chapter:**

**Chapter Four: Proton's Challenge! Ash's gamble!**

* * *

**Now for a bit of rambling about the poll. What do you guys think I should do?**

**I don't know if people like Hilda or people like Hilda with Ash. But right now Hilda is in the lead. Maybe people are sick of seeing the same shippings again?**

**Voting Results:**

**Hilda-21**

**Dawn-17 **

**Misty-16**

**May-13(will be removed if it doesn't go up)**

**Annabel-10(will mostly be removed in round 2)**

**Iris-6(will be removed in round 2)**

**Now, this is a survey question. **

**1) **** Do you think most people voted Hilda because they are sick of the standard three shippings, or do people have like Hilda as a character...in that case I would make her couple with N, while still having some mild crush on Ash at the beginning.**

**2) ****Iris has 6 votes, Annabel has 10 and May has 13 votes. These are very low numbers and these three would most likely not win unless Advanceshippers come up with people to vote. So should I remove May from round 2? That way the votes won't split up and I'll have a better idea.**

**Note that this isn't a popularity contest. People who read this fic don't represent the community, but I'd rather give the pairing people want than force them with the pairing I like.**

**Plus, shipping will only have minor role in this fic. Not as minor as Road to be a Pokémon Master, but still minor. The main conflict is between Ash and N.**

**One thing is for certain: Hilda will be in this fic. I just don't know what to do with her. Your opinions will let me decide what I should do with the second round of voting.**

** So do review!**

"


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